Prepaid bundled health, dental, and veterinary services with virtual payment distribution

ABSTRACT

Apparatus and associated methods relate to presenting for selection services comprising at least one bundled set of healthcare services to be performed separately by respective providers, determining a bundle price for the at least one bundled set of healthcare services, and in response to receiving payment in an amount of the bundle price, generating a purchase data record selectively redeemable to receive each of the at least one bundled set of healthcare services, and transmitting a unique confirmation number generated for the purchase data record. One or more service of the bundled set may be a dental or veterinary service. The bundle price may be based on a location or time at which at least one service will be performed and may be determined using a user&#39;s remaining insurance deductible. Payment may be disbursed to multiple providers of the bundled set of healthcare services. A payment may be virtual funds.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 17/543,723 filed Dec. 6,2021, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.17/411,494 filed Aug. 25, 2021, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 11,315,160,which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/209,117 filedMar. 22, 2021, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 11,170,423, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/913,662 filed Jun. 26,2020, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 10,991,021, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/685,888 filed Nov.15, 2019, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 11,030,666, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/520,906 filed Jul.24, 2019, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 11,030,665, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/055,076 filed Feb.26, 2016, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.14/874,004 filed Oct. 2, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 14/827,026 filed Aug. 14, 2015, which is acontinuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/461,209 filed Aug.15, 2014, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 9,123,072, which claims the benefitof Provisional Appl. 61/866,922 filed Aug. 16, 2013, the contents ofwhich are all incorporated herein in their entirety by referencethereto. In addition, said U.S. application Ser. No. 15/055,076 filedFeb. 26, 2016, is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.No. 14/750,081 filed Jun. 25, 2015, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. application Ser. No. 14/461,209 filed Aug. 15, 2014, now issuedU.S. Pat. No. 9,123,072, which claims the benefit of Provisional Appl.61/866,922 filed Aug. 16, 2013, the contents of which are allincorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Medical services are services provided to a medical patient. Somemedical services may help improve or maintain a patient's health, basedon disease prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. The practice of medicineencompasses medical procedures performed for a patient, which mayinclude both preventive care and treatment. Medical service providersinclude doctors, hospitals, and health insurers. A provider may offermedical services to patients by provisioning medical resources such as,for example, laboratory, imaging, treatment, or surgical facilities, toprovide the services. Some medical services may require speciallytrained or licensed medical professionals. For example, a medicalpractice providing diagnosis and treatment for joint pain may providemedical services through the work of an orthopedic specialist. In somescenarios, patient access to a specialized professional or facility maybe limited by cost, or availability. Some specialized medicalprofessionals and related facilities may be scarce.

A medical practice may also limit the medical procedures offered topatients based on the availability of specialized professionals andfacilities at a given time or location as increasingly seen with theonset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the services offered to apatient may be determined based on allocating surgeons to varioussurgical facility locations at specific times. Services supplied topatients may be limited to the allocated medical professionals andfacilities, even when medical service demand exceeds supply at a givenlocation or time. A medical practice providing many types of medicalservices may expend significant resources adapting the offered servicesto demand as cost and demand change. Some medical practices may fail tocapture potential revenue lost when resources to provide medicalservices are underutilized relative to medical service demand.

The price of healthcare services varies depending on specialty,procedure, and physician practice. In the United States, many patientsdo not have access to a simple way to shop and compare the price ofcommon medical procedures. Due to the current managed care-based payorsystem in the US, the cost of treatment is often determined by managedcare organizations.

These managed care organizations have specific formularies for drugs andprocedures designed specifically to patients' individual health plans,which restrict the drugs and procedures available to patients in theirplans. Patients have historically had no access to these price lists orformularies and have had very few tools to assist them in finding andcomparing health care services or predetermining the cost of aprocedure. Currently prospective patients who chose to compare medicalcosts are forced to conduct extensive, often inefficient, andtime-consuming research to compare medical procedures prior totreatment.

The rising cost of healthcare is having a dramatic effect on the U.S.healthcare system. Healthcare costs continue to outpace paceinflationary growth, provider reimbursement rates continue to fall, andthe cost of patient insurance premiums are increasing. To lower monthlypremium costs, many patients are choosing to purchase (and employers arechoosing to offer) high deductible health plans as an alternative totraditional higher premium PPO health plans.

These high deductible plans require patients to pay cash payments formedical services until the high deductible is satisfied, and once thisdeductible has been met, the insurance carrier begins to cover medicalcosts. As a result, many patients are seeing exponential increases inout-of-pocket expenses for medical procedures and services. In additionto more patients selecting high deductible plans, many patients cannotafford increased payments and are becoming uninsured or underinsured. Asthe number of patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or on highdeductible plans grows, the need for a mechanism that allows patients tofind discounted medical services increases and an efficient paymentsystem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Herein presented is an apparatus and associated methods for presentingusers a selection of at least one bundled set of healthcare servicesprovided discretely and/or individually by a plurality of respectiveproviders, determining a bundle price for the bundled set of healthcareservices, receiving payment for the user selected bundled set,generating a purchase data record selectively redeemable by the user toreceive each of the bundled healthcare services in the bundled set,transmitting a unique confirmation number generated for the purchasedata record to track the redemption status of the purchase data record,disbursing payment allocated from the received payment to the pluralityof respective providers and updating the redemption status of thepurchase data record as each of the plurality of services of the bundledset are redeemed. The bundle price may be based on the user's healthinsurance deductible as well as the location and/or time at which thebundled set of services will be provided. The purchase data record maybe a voucher.

The above-described and other features and advantages realized throughthe techniques of the present disclosure will be better appreciated andunderstood with reference to the following detailed description,drawings, and appended claims. Additional features and advantages arerealized through the techniques of the present invention. Otherembodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail hereinand are considered a part of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter that is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, andadvantages of the invention are apparent from the following detaileddescription of exemplary embodiments of the present invention taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example networkarchitecture for a healthcare marketplace system that can be configuredto implement exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a server system in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A-3D are a number of screen shots illustrating examples of agraphical user interfaces that may be implemented by services providedwithin a customer portal in accordance with exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4A is an illustration of an example voucher that may be generatedwithin a user interface by functions provided within a customer portalfor a purchased service in accordance with exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4B is an illustration of an example voucher that may be generatedwithin a user interface by functions provided within a customer portalfor a purchased service that is offered as a bundled set of services inaccordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system that can beused for implementing exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a second example networkarchitecture for a healthcare marketplace system that can be configuredto implement exemplary embodiments of the present invention; and

FIGS. 7A-7C are a number of screen shots illustrating examples of agraphical user interfaces that may be implemented by services providedwithin a provider portal in accordance with exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an insurance policy stored in theinsurance database executed by the application server in accordance withexemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a virtual payment system managercommunicating with client system in a healthcare marketplace system.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of the application server showingdeductible checker, shopping cart, and drug discounted card inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design.

FIG. 12 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design.

FIG. 13 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design.

FIG. 14 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design.

The detailed description explains exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention, together with advantages and features, by way of example withreference to the drawings, in which similar numbers refer to similarparts throughout the drawings. The flow diagrams depicted herein arejust examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams, or thesteps (or operations) described therein without departing from thespirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in adiffering order, or steps may be added, deleted, or modified. All thesevariations are considered to be within the scope of the claimedinvention.

Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While the specification concludes with claims defining the features ofthe invention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that theinvention will be better understood from a consideration of thedescription of exemplary embodiments in conjunction with drawings. It isof course to be understood that the embodiments described herein aremerely exemplary of the invention, which can be embodied in variousforms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosedin relation to the exemplary embodiments described herein are not to beinterpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis forteaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the presentinvention in virtually any appropriate form, and it will be apparent tothose skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. Further, the terms and phrases usedherein are not intended to be limiting but rather to provide anunderstandable description of the invention.

As stated above, herein presented is an apparatus and associated methodsfor presenting users a selection of at least one bundled set ofhealthcare services provided discretely and/or individually by aplurality of respective providers, determining a bundle price for thebundled set of healthcare services, receiving payment for the userselected bundled set, generating a purchase data record selectivelyredeemable by the user to receive each of the bundled healthcareservices in the bundled set, transmitting a unique confirmation numbergenerated for the purchase data record to track the redemption status ofthe purchase data record, disbursing payment allocated from the receivedpayment to the plurality of respective providers and updating theredemption status of the voucher as each of the plurality of services ofthe bundled set are redeemed. The purchase data record may be a voucher.

A bundled set may comprise a plurality of services or products. Theservices or products may comprise, for example, healthcare services,drugs, follow-up services, primary services, or a secondary servicerelated to a primary service. The healthcare services may furthercomprise dental services. The dental services may comprise primaryservices. The dental services may further comprise one or more secondaryservice related to a primary service. The healthcare services mayfurther comprise veterinary services. The veterinary services maycomprise primary services. The veterinary services may further compriseone or more secondary service related to a primary service. A bundledset may comprise a set of healthcare services to be performed separatelyby respective providers. In the present disclosure the term “separately”may be interchangeably used with either of the terms “individually” or“discretely.” The bundled set may be offered for purchase pre-paid at abundle price. The bundle price may be a discounted price. The price maybe discounted based on the location, time, or facility where at leastone service of the bundled set will be performed. The price may bediscounted based on a user's health insurance deductible. An amount ofthe received payment may be applied to the user's health insurancedeductible. The bundle price may be determined based on the user'sremaining health insurance deductible. Payment of the pre-paid bundleprice may be received in virtual funds. Some implementations maydisburse payment to providers of the services or products in the bundledset. The providers to which payment is disbursed may comprise aphysician, a dentist, a dental hygienist, a dental lab, a veterinarian,a veterinary technician, a practice group, a hospital, or an insurer. Adisbursed payment may comprise a plurality of payments allocated from areceived payment, and the plurality of payments may be disbursed to aplurality of respective providers.

An implementation in accordance with the present disclosure may use aprocessor to generate a unique confirmation number for the purchasedpre-paid bundled set of healthcare services, store the uniqueconfirmation number to a purchase data record, and transmit the uniqueconfirmation number to a user. The purchase data record may be avoucher. In the present disclosure the term “purchase data record” maybe interchangeably used with either of the terms “voucher” or “voucherdata record.” The voucher data record may be stored or updated in amemory, or a data store operably coupled with the processor. The voucherdata record may represent a voucher redeemable by the user to receivethe at least one healthcare service of the bundled set of healthcareservices. The voucher data record may comprise the unique confirmationnumber for the purchased bundled set of healthcare services. The voucherdata record may further comprise a voucher redemption status for eachhealthcare service of the bundled set of healthcare services, permittingcreation of a voucher that may be redeemed for a healthcare servicepurchased prepaid, and even more so, that said voucher can be used foreach of the services of the bundled set of healthcare servicesseparately. The voucher data record associated with the uniqueconfirmation number is persistent and permits an individual bundled setof a group of bundled sets, or individual services comprising a bundledset of services, to be selectively redeemed.

The redemption status of each individual service or each individualbundled set may be updated in the data store or the memory to indicatethe current voucher redemption status of each bundled set or eachservice in the bundled set of services, further enabling the samevoucher uniquely identified by the confirmation number to persist formultiple service redemptions at different times and locations. Thedisclosed persistent voucher generation for selective redemption ofbundled services provides a technical solution, necessarily rooted incomputer and information technology disclosed herein, to the technicalproblem of persistently tracking and updating the redemption status foreach service of a service bundle of services to be performed separately,as the individual services are selectively redeemed.

Exemplary embodiments of a transactional marketplace system inaccordance with the present invention will now be described withreference to the drawings. Exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented to provide healthcare service providers andpharmacies with a mechanism to remotely offer healthcare services andproducts to prospective patients at discounted rates in exchange forprepayment of the costs for the services and products via anetwork-based application (for example, a web-based application).

In this regard, exemplary embodiments may further be implemented toprovide prospective patients with a mechanism to remotely search,compare, and make pre-paid purchases of such healthcare services andproducts offered by local medical service providers and pharmacies via anetwork-connected device configured to access the network-basedapplication. Exemplary embodiments may be further implemented to providehealthcare service providers with the ability to remotely offer abundled set of healthcare services that are performed separately bymultiple providers to prospective patients through such a network-basedmechanism in which the patient is provided the opportunity to make aprepaid purchase of such a bundled set of services in a singletransaction via the network-connected device, whereby the network-basedapplication facilitates a disbursed distribution of the payment amongthe multiple healthcare service providers that perform services includedin the bundled set of services.

Exemplary embodiments may also be further implemented to provide avirtual payment system for facilitating and accounting for the exchangeof payment for services and products purchased by (or otherwise onbehalf of) patients and offered by healthcare providers via thetransactional marketplace system in which a respective virtual moneyaccount is established and utilized for each participant in transactionsconducted within the marketplace system to manage and track the processof exchanging actual currency and/or credits used to pay for thetransactions through the use of corresponding virtual funds createdwithin the virtual payment system.

In such exemplary embodiments, the virtual funds may be allocated anddistributed to, exchanged among, and redeemed for corresponding amountsof actual currency by various participants to each transaction for whichpayment is facilitated through the virtual payment system, and theparticipants to transactions within the virtual payment system for whichrespective virtual money accounts are established and utilized mayinclude, in addition to patients, healthcare providers, or otherentities specified for receiving payments for services or productsoffered through the marketplace system, third party payers, and anentity that provides the transactional marketplace system.

Exemplary embodiments may be further implemented to provide varioustypes of healthcare service providers, which may include individualphysicians, practice groups, and hospital systems, with the ability toestablish affiliations with one another through such a network-basedmechanism and provide various options allowing the service providers toremotely offer healthcare services in association with theseaffiliations.

It should further be noted that various aspects of exemplary embodimentsof the present invention described herein are not limited to healthcareservices (also referred to herein as procedures) and products but,rather, may be implemented with respect to any suitable classes andtypes of services and products that may be offered by any suitableclasses and types of service providers and retailers.

Referring now to FIG. 1 , a schematic diagram illustrating an examplenetwork architecture for a healthcare marketplace system 100 that can beconfigured to implement exemplary embodiments of the present inventionis provided. It should of course be understood that FIG. 1 is intendedas an example, not as an architectural limitation for differentembodiments of the present invention, and therefore, the elementsdepicted in FIG. 1 should not be considered limiting with regard to theenvironments within which exemplary embodiments of the present inventionmay be implemented.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 1 , healthcare marketplace system 100is implemented as a client/server system that includes a central serversystem 110 that is commonly accessed by each user of the system throughoperation of any of a plurality of client systems 140 that areoperatively coupled to the central server system via a communicationnetwork 150. Central server system 110 further includes a databaseserver 112 that is coupled to a data store 114 and an application server116, and each client system 140 is a user terminal or other clientdevice implementing software for and running a respective clientapplication 142 for accessing services provided via a network-basedapplication (also referred to herein as a network service) implementedby application server 116.

As further illustrated, exemplary marketplace system 100 may alsoinclude at least one third-party server system 160 to enable otherfunctionality that may be accessed and utilized by server system 110 toprovide and/or enhance the network service discussed herein. Inexemplary embodiments, marketplace system 100 can include additionalservers, clients, and other devices not shown in FIG. 1 . The particulararchitecture depicted in FIG. 1 is provided as an example forillustrative purposes and, in exemplary embodiments, any number ofclient systems 140 may be connected to server system 110 at any giventime via network 150, and server system 110 can comprise multiple servercomponents and databases located within a single server system or withinmultiple server systems, where the multiple server systems areintegrated with or accessible by users of client systems 140 as adistributed server system via network 150.

In exemplary embodiments, network 150 can be configured to facilitatecommunications between server system 110 and client systems 140, as wellas communications with and between other devices and computers connectedtogether within marketplace system 100, by any suitable wired (includingoptical fiber), wireless technology, or any suitable combinationthereof, including, but not limited to, personal area networks (PANs),local area networks (LANs), wireless networks, wide-area networks (WAN),the Internet (a network of heterogeneous networks using the InternetProtocol, IP), and virtual private networks, and the network may alsoutilize any suitable hardware, software, and firmware technology toconnect devices such as, for example, optical fiber, Ethernet, ISDN(Integrated Services Digital Network), T-1 or T-3 link, FDDI (FiberDistributed Data Network), cable or wireless LMDS network, Wireless LAN,Wireless PAN (for example, IrDA, Bluetooth, Wireless USB, Z-Wave andZigBee), HomePNA, Power line communication, or telephone line network.Such a network connection can include intranets, extranets, and theInternet, may contain any number of network infrastructure elementsincluding routers, switches, gateways, etc., can comprise a circuitswitched network, such as the Public Service Telephone Network (PSTN), apacket switched network, such as the global Internet, a private WAN orLAN, a telecommunications network, a broadcast network, or apoint-to-point network, and may utilize a variety of networkingprotocols now available or later developed including, but not limited tothe Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite ofprotocols for communication.

In exemplary embodiments, application server 116, database server 112,and any other servers employed within server system 110 and third-partyservers utilized within marketplace system 100 can be implemented withinany suitable computing system or systems such as a workstation computer,a mainframe computer, a server system (for example, SUN ULTRAworkstations running the SUN operating system, IBM RS/6000 workstationsand servers running the AIX operating system, or an IBM zSeries eServerrunning z/OS, zNM, or LINUX OS), a server cluster, a distributedcomputing system, a cloud based computing system, or the like, as wellas any of the various types of computing systems and devices describedbelow with reference to the client systems 140. Server system 110 may beimplemented using any of a variety of architectures. For example,application server 116 and database server 112 may also be implementedindependently or as a single, integrated device. While the exemplaryembodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 depicts application server 116 anddatabase server 112 as individual components, the applications providedby these servers, or various combinations of these applications, may beserver applications running on separate physical devices. In thisregard, server system 110 may comprise a number of computers connectedtogether via a network and, therefore, may exist as multiple separatelogical and/or physical units, and/or as multiple servers acting inconcert or independently, wherein each server may be comprised ofmultiple separate logical and/or physical units. In exemplaryembodiments, server system 110 can be connected to network 150 through acollection of suitable security appliances, which may be implemented inhardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , application server 116 is communicativelycoupled to database server 112. Database server 112 is connected to datastore 114, which comprises a plurality of databases that are maintainedby database server 112, accessed by application server 116 via databaseservices provided at a front end by database server 112, and storeinformation on a variety of matters that is utilized in providing theservices offered via the network service provided by the applicationserver, as described below in greater detail.

The machine learning algorithm 15 instructs the service offer database114 h to store each healthcare service provider service corresponding tothe user selection and displays the bundled set of service offers viathe graphical user interface/provider portal 130 that matches the users'selection.

Any machine-learning algorithm 15 can be employed, such as neuralnetworks, expert systems, Bayesian belief networks, fuzzy logic, datafusion engines and the like. The system may also employ combinations ofvarious artificial intelligence techniques to the service offer database114 h.

The machine learning algorithm 15 takes into account of each and everyparameter of user inputs such as type of disease, location, expertise,procedures, hospitals, pricing etc. Thus, the machine learning algorithm15 displays the best results/hits based on the inputs and preferences ofthe user.

As used herein, the term “data store,” “data storage unit,” “storagedevice”, and the like can to any suitable memory device that may be usedfor storing data, including manual files, machine-readable files, anddatabases. In exemplary embodiments, application server 116, databaseserver 112, and data store 114 may have implemented together a singlecomputing device, implemented within a plurality of computing deviceslocally coupled to each other via a suitable communication medium, suchas a serial port cable, telephone line or wireless frequencytransceiver, implemented within a plurality of computing devicesremotely coupled to each other via network 150, or any suitablecombination thereof.

Client systems 140 are computer devices to which one or more users,which may be healthcare providers offering services or products orpatients seeking to purchase healthcare services or products, or theirhuman agents (for example, personal representatives or assistants), haveaccess. It should be noted that the term “user” is used herein to referto one who uses a computer system, such as one of client systems 140. Asdescribed in greater detail below, client systems 140 are each operableby such users to access server system 110 via network 150 and act asclients to access services offered by the network service provided bythe server system within exemplary marketplace system 100. For thispurpose, each client system includes a respective client application 142that executes on the client system and allows a user to interact withserver system 110 via application server 116.

In exemplary embodiments, the computer systems of client systems 140 canbe any of a wide range of suitable computing devices such as one or moreworkstations, desktop computers, laptops, or other personal computers(PCs) (for example, IBM or compatible PC workstations running theMICROSOFT WINDOWS operating system or LINUX OS, MACINTOSH computersrunning the MAC OSX operating system, or equivalent),non-traditional-computer digital devices such as Personal DigitalAssistants (PDAs) and other handheld or portable electronic devices,smart phones and other mobile handsets, tablet computers, netbookcomputers, game consoles, home theater PCs, desktop replacementcomputers, and the like, or any other suitable information processingdevices. An exemplary computer system for client systems 140 isdescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIG. 5 .

In general, during operation of exemplary marketplace system 100, aclient system 140 first establishes a connection to server system 110via network 150. Once the connection has been established, the connectedclient system may directly or indirectly transmit data to and accesscontent from the application server 116. A user accessing applicationserver 116 through the connected client system can thereby to use aclient application 142 to access services provided by the applicationserver, which are described in greater detail below, via a userinterface implemented by the client application within which the clientapplication renders the information served by the application server.

In exemplary embodiments, application server 116 can implement networkservice as a non-web client application (such as a mobile application),a web client application, or both to provide the services accessed byclient systems 140 within server system 110, and client applications 142can correspondingly be implemented as non-web client applications, webclient applications, or both for operation by users of the clientsystems to interact with application server 116 and access the servicesprovided thereby. For example, application server 116 can comprise a webserver configured to provide a web application for the respective clientapplications implemented on client systems 140 that are configured toprovide web-based user interfaces for utilizing the services provided bythe web server. For instance, the user interfaces of client applicationsimplemented on client systems 140 can be configured to provide variousoptions corresponding to the functionality offered in exemplaryembodiments described herein through suitable user interface controls(for example, by way of menu selection, point-and-click, dialog box, orkeyboard command). In one general example, the user interfaces mayprovide “send” or “submit” buttons that allow users of clientapplications to transmit requested information to application server116. The user interfaces can be implemented, for example, as a graphicaluser interface (GUI) that renders a common display structure torepresent the network service provided by application server 116 for auser of a client platform.

More specifically, in such an example, application server 116 can, forexample, be configured to provide services via a web-based softwareapplication hosting a corresponding website that includes a number ofweb pages (e.g., screens), and client applications 142 can comprise aweb browser executing on client systems 140, such that the servicesprovided by application server 116 are accessible to client systems 114using the Internet or an intranet. Users of client systems 140 maythereby access the website provided by application server 116 by, forexample, inputting or following a link to the uniform resource locator(URL) for the website in the web browser, which then enable users todisplay and interact with information, media, and other content embeddedwithin the web pages of the website provided by application server 116.The web-based software application can transmit information that can beprocessed by the web browsers to render a user interface using, forexample, a browser-supported programming languages such as JavaScript,HTML, HTML5, and CSS, or the like, and can communicate with the webbrowsers using, for example, HTTPS, POST and/or GET requests. Clientapplications 142 and application server 116 may be configured so thatinformation transmitted between client systems 140 and server system 110can be encrypted and sent over a secure network connection to protect,for example, patient privacy.

Referring now to FIG. 2 , a block diagram illustrating an exemplaryembodiment of server system 110 is provided. As illustrated in FIG. 2 ,application server 116 is implemented to provide a plurality of servicesvia a customer portal 120 and a plurality of services via a providerportal 130. As described herein, application server 116 can beimplemented to provide a respective set services for each of varioustypes of users (for example, unregistered guests, customers, individualphysicians, nurses, office staff, practice group administrators,hospital system administrators, pharmacy administrators, and the like),and some of the services offered by application server 116 can becommonly applicable to and accessible by all types of users, while otherservices can be applicable to and accessible only by specific types ofusers.

For purposes of description, the terms “providers” and “provider users”are used herein to refer to the general class of users that registerwith the system offer healthcare services or products for purchase bycustomer users registered with the system, which can include individualphysician users, practice group administrators, hospital systemadministrators, pharmacy administrators, and the like. In addition, auser account for a particular provider can have any number of authorizedusers. As an example, an account established for a physician can havethe physician as one of its users. It can also have nurses or officestaff working for the physician as other authorized users. The otherauthorized users can log into the account and perform various actionswith the permission and under the supervision of the physician.

A single hospital system account may be established and shared bymultiple staff member's hospital system. For purpose of illustration,there can be a designated user (for example, an account administrator)who is responsible for managing the account. The administrator can beprovided with greater access rights within server system 110 withrespect to the account. In exemplary embodiments, the particular clientapplications 142 or the particular client systems 140 that are utilizedfor accessing application server 116 can be respective to and customizedfor each type of user account. For example, the particular clientapplication that is utilized for each type of account can be implementedto a provide virtual computing platform that is specific to the servicesoffered for that type of account.

As further illustrated in exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 , and as willalso be described in greater detail below, data store 114 comprises aplurality of databases that are maintained and accessible by applicationserver 116 via database server 112, including a customer profiledatabase 114 a, a physician profile database 114 b, a practice groupprofile database 114 c, a hospital system profile database 114 d, apharmacy profile database 114 e, a condition information database 114 f,an available services database 114 g, a service offer database 114 h, anavailable products database 114 i, a product offer database 114 j, atransaction information database 114 k, and one or more additionaldatabases 1141 that may be used for storing any other suitableinformation that may be utilized by server system 110 (for example,system usage data, audit trail data, data used internally within thesystem by application server 116, and the like).

The customer profile database 114 a is configured to register usersthereby providing user's personal information for purchasing healthcareservices. The physician profile database 114 b is configured to registerand maintain records of individual physician offering healthcareservices. The condition information database 114 f is configured toregister and maintain information records for various health conditionsand diseases for which corresponding healthcare services are offered.

Physician profile database 114 b is used to maintain account informationrecords for individual physician users that register with server system110 to offer healthcare services for purchase by customer usersregistered with the system, as well as account information records forindividual physicians that are registered with the system in associationwith a practice group or hospital system (as described in greater detailbelow). For each physician for which an account is registered withserver system 110, various items of information relevant to thephysician, such as name, practice specialty, office location(s) andhours, a profile picture, contact information, biographical information(such as awards, honors, publications, patient testimonials, and otherinformation that can be helpful for marketing the physician to customersaccessing the system), URLs or references to websites and social mediaprofiles, group practice and hospital affiliation(s), outside facilitiesthat are used for particular procedures performed by the physician (forexample, particular hospitals or clinics), compensation information(indicating a financial account for receiving payment for purchases ofservices offered by the physician via the system), and any othersuitable identifying information, as well as a unique user name andpassword associated with the account that can be used to log into theaccount, may be included in the respective account information recordfor the physician that is maintained within physician profile database114 b. The account information record for each physician can also beassociated with an account status and a unique physician accountidentifier within physician profile database 114 b that is used byapplication server 116 for performing various operations.

Practice group profile database 114 c is used to maintain accountinformation records for practice group administrator users that registerwith server system 110 to offer healthcare services provided byphysicians affiliated with a practice group for purchase by customerusers registered with the system. For each practice group for which anaccount is registered with server system 110, various items ofinformation relevant to the practice, such as practice group name,location and hours, contact information, URLs or references to websitesand social media profiles for the practice group, physician and hospitalaffiliation(s), outside facilities that are used for particularprocedures performed by physicians affiliated with the practice group,compensation information (indicating a financial account for receivingpayment for purchases of services offered by affiliated physicians viathe system), and any other suitable identifying information, as well asa unique user name and password associated with the account that can beused by the practice group administrator to log into the account, may beincluded in the respective account information record for the practicegroup that is maintained within practice group profile database 114 c.The account information record for each practice group can also beassociated with an account status and a unique practice group accountidentifier within practice group profile database 114 c that may be usedby physician users registered with the system for affiliating with thepractice group and used by application server 116 for performing variousoperations.

The hospital system profile database 114 d is configured to register andmaintain account information records for hospital system administratorsproviding pre-paid healthcare services. Hospital system profile database114 d is used to maintain account information records for hospitalsystem administrator users that register with server system 110 to makeon-site, in-person sales of pre-paid healthcare services provided byphysicians affiliated with a hospital system for purchase by patientsoperating client systems within marketplace system 100. For eachhospital system for which an account is registered with server system110, various items of information relevant to the hospital system, suchas practice group and physician affiliation(s), facilities that are usedfor particular procedures performed by physicians affiliated with thehospital system, compensation information (indicating a financialaccount for receiving payment for purchases of services offered byaffiliated physicians via the system), and any other suitableidentifying information, as well as a unique user name and passwordassociated with the account that can be used by the hospital systemadministrator to log into the account, may be included in the respectiveaccount information record for the hospital system that is maintainedwithin hospital system profile database 114 d. The respective accountinformation record for the hospital system may further include aplurality of unique user names and passwords associated with the accountthat can be respectively used by hospital system staff members to loginto the account The account information record for each hospital systemcan also be associated with an account status and a unique hospitalsystem account identifier within hospital system profile database 114 dthat may be used by physician users registered with the system foraffiliating with the hospital system and used by application server 116for performing various operations.

Pharmacy profile database 114 e is used to maintain account informationrecords for pharmacy administrators that register with server system 110to offer healthcare products, such as prescription drugs and medicalsupplies, for purchase by customer users registered with the system. Foreach pharmacy for which an account is registered with server system 110,various items of information relevant to the pharmacy, such as name,location(s) and hours, contact information, URLs or references towebsites and social media profiles, compensation information (indicatinga financial account for receiving payment for purchases of productsoffered by the pharmacy via the system), and any other suitableidentifying information, as well as a unique user name and passwordassociated with the account that can be used to log into the account,may be included in the respective account information record for thepharmacy that is maintained within pharmacy profile database 114 e. Theaccount information record for each pharmacy can also be associated withan account status and a unique pharmacy account identifier withinpharmacy profile database 114 e that is used by application server 116for performing various operations.

Condition information database 114 f is used to maintain informationrecords for various health conditions and diseases for whichcorresponding healthcare services (for example, test and treatments)that can be offered by providers registered with server system 110 forpurchase by customer users registered with the system. In exemplaryembodiments, the various conditions, and diseases for which respectiveinformation records are maintained in condition information database 114f and the information that populates the respective information recordfor each condition or disease can be created and maintained by aback-endadministrator of server system 110. For each condition or disease forwhich an information record is created, various items of informationrelevant to the condition or disease, such as name, description, causes,risk factors, symptoms, common treatments, corresponding healthcareservices that can be offered by providers registered with server system110 (for example, each associated healthcare service may be identifiedwithin the information record using a unique procedure identifier thatis used to identify an information record for the service withinavailable services database 114 g as discussed below), and any othersuitable information may be included in the respective informationrecord for the condition or disease that is maintained within conditioninformation database 114 f.

The available service database 114 g is configured to register andmaintain records of various healthcare services offered by at least oneof: a physician; and a hospital. Available services database 114 g isused to maintain information records for various healthcare services(for example, test and treatments) that can be offered by providersregistered with server system 110 for purchase by customer usersregistered with the server system. In exemplary embodiments, therespective information records for healthcare services that aremaintained in available services database 114 g and the information thatpopulates the respective information record for each service can becreated and maintained by a back-end administrator of server system 110.For each service for which an information record is created, variousitems of information relevant to the service, such as name, proceduredetail, one or more medical specialties with which the procedure iscommonly associated, cost information (for example, average prices forthe service for patients that are uninsured and/or have a highdeductible insurance plan and an average price for purchasing theservice that is offered by providers registered with server system 110),a medical code number identifying the service according to thenomenclature used by a formal medical classification system (forexample, a code that is used to identify the service according to theCurrent Procedural Terminology (CPT) code set), a procedure identifierthat is used by application server 116 to uniquely identify theparticular service, and any other suitable information may be includedin the respective information record for the service that is maintainedwithin available services database 114 g.

Additionally, in exemplary embodiments, the information record for eachservice that is maintained within available services database 114 g mayfurther include an indication of the whether the service can be offeredby providers within marketplace system 100 as an individual primaryservice or as a primary service of a bundled set of a plurality ofservices (for which a single payment for the bundled set of serviceswill be disbursed to different provider for each of the services in thebundled set). In such embodiments, for each service for which theinformation record includes an indication that the service is offered asa primary service of a bundled set of services, various items ofadditional information relevant to the bundled set of servicesassociated with the service that is indicated to be a primary servicemay be included in the respective information record for the primaryservice that is maintained within available services database 114 g.Such items of information relevant to the bundled set of servicesincluded in the respective information record for a primary service mayinclude, for example, items of information describing one or moresecondary services associated with the primary service (such as name, amedical code number such as a CPT code identifying the service accordingto the nomenclature used by a formal medical classification system, anda secondary procedure identifier that is used by application server 116to uniquely identify the particular secondary service in associationwith the unique procedure identifier for the primary service), one ormore procedure identifiers for other services for which an informationrecord is maintained within available services database 114 g that areconsidered to be secondary services associated with the primary service,an indication of whether performance of each of the one or moresecondary services (for which a single customer payment for the bundledset of services will be disbursed among different respective providersfor the services in the bundled set) is optional or required inassociation with performance of the primary service, and an indicationof whether the primary service is required to be performed at an outsidefacility. In addition, in such embodiments, for each service for whichthe information record includes an indication that the service isoffered as a primary service of a bundled set of services, the costinformation that is included in the respective information record forthe primary service that is maintained within available servicesdatabase 114 g can include respective cost information for each of theprimary service, the one or secondary services, and, if required, theuse of an outside facility for the primary service individually (forexample, average prices for each service and facility of the bundled setof services for patients that are uninsured and/or have a highdeductible insurance plan) in addition to an average price forpurchasing the bundled set of services that is offered by providersregistered with server system 110.

Service offer database 114 h is used to maintain information records forhealthcare services that are being offered by providers registered withthe system for purchase by customer users registered with the system. Inthis regard, it should be noted that the same service may be separatelyoffered by multiple different providers registered with the system and,thus, service offer database 114 h can include multiple informationrecords for the same service that are each associated with a differentprovider. For each offered service for which a respective informationrecord is maintained within service offer database 114 h, various itemsof information relevant to the service being offered, such as the uniqueprocedure identifier for the information record within availableservices database 114 g for the service, the unique account identifierfor the account information record (within physician profile database114 b, practice group profile database 114 c, or hospital system profiledatabase 114 d) of the provider that is offering the service through thesystem, the unique physician account identifier for the accountinformation record within physician profile database 114 b of thephysician user that will perform the service, a location at which theservice will be performed, a discounted price for purchasing the servicewithin marketplace system 100, a regular price for the service when theservice is purchased outside of the system, the unique accountidentifier for the account information record (within physician profiledatabase 114 b, practice group profile database 114 c, or hospitalsystem profile database 114 d) of the provider for which payment for theservice when purchased through the system is to be directed, a paymentamount to be transferred to the provider for which payment forperforming the service is to be directed, additional descriptiveinformation that may be provided by the provider offering the service, aprocedure offer identifier that is used by application server 116 touniquely identify the offering of the particular service by the providerwithin the system, and any other suitable information may be included inthe respective information record for the offered service that ismaintained within service offer database 114 h.

Additionally, in exemplary embodiments, the information records foroffered services that are maintained within service offer database 114 hcan include information records that include additional information forservices that are offered by providers registered with the system as abundled set of services. In this regard, the information record for eachoffered service that is maintained within service offer database 114 hmay further include an indication of the whether the offered service isbeing offered as an individual primary service or as a primary serviceof a bundled set of a plurality of services (for which a single customerpayment for the bundled set of services will be disbursed amongdifferent respective providers for the services in the bundled set). Insuch embodiments, for each offered service for which the informationrecord includes an indication that the service is being offered by aprovider as a primary service of a bundled set of services, variousitems of additional information relevant to the bundled set of servicesassociated with the offered service that is indicated to be a primaryservice may be included in the respective information record for theoffered service that is maintained within service offer database 114 h.Such items of information relevant to the bundled set of servicesincluded in the respective information record for an offered servicewithin service offer database 114 h that is indicated to be a primaryservice of a bundled set of services may include, for example, items ofinformation for each secondary service such as the unique procedureidentifier for the information record within available services database114 g for the secondary service (or the secondary procedure identifierthat is included in the available services database 114 g to uniquelyidentify the particular secondary service in association with the uniqueprocedure identifier for the offered primary service where theinformation record for the primary service being offered in theavailable services database 114 g includes an indication that theservice is offered as a primary service of a bundled set of services),the unique physician account identifier for the account informationrecord within physician profile database 114 b of the physician userthat will perform the secondary service, a location at which the servicewill be performed, a discounted price for purchasing the secondaryservice within marketplace system 100, a regular price for the secondaryservice when the service is purchased outside of the system, the uniqueaccount identifier for the account information record (within physicianprofile database 114 b, practice group profile database 114 c, orhospital system profile database 114 d) of the provider for whichpayment for the secondary service when purchased through the system isto be directed, a payment amount to be transferred to the provider forwhich payment for performing the secondary service is to be directed,and an indication of whether performance of the secondary service isoptional or required in association with performance of the primaryservice. The items of information relevant to the bundled set ofservices included in the respective information record for an offeredservice within service offer database 114 h that is indicated to be aprimary service of a bundled set of services may further include, forexample, an indication of whether the primary service is to be performedat an outside facility and, if the primary service is to be performed atan outside facility, items of information pertaining to each of one ormore facilities that may be used to perform the primary service such as,for example, name, address, contact information, facility fee, andcompensation information indicating a financial account that is used bythe facility for receiving a facility fee.

Available products database 114 i is used to maintain informationrecords for various healthcare products (for example, prescription drugsand medical supplies) that can be offered by pharmacies registered withserver system 110 (that is, pharmacies for which an account informationrecord is maintained within pharmacy profile database 114 e) forpurchase by customer users registered with the system. In exemplaryembodiments, the respective information records for the healthcareproducts that are maintained in available products database 114 i andthe information that populates the respective information record foreach product can be created and maintained by a back-end administratorof server system 110. For each product for which an information recordis created, various items of information relevant to the product, suchas name(s), a list of dosage level options (for prescription drugs),size options (for certain medical supplies), and the like, a descriptionof the product, an indication of whether a prescription is required topurchase the product, information for rendering a respective predefinedfillable form for submitting prescription information for the productwithin a user interface, cost information (for example, average pricesfor the product for patients that are uninsured and/or have a highdeductible insurance plan and a lowest price for purchasing the productthat is offered for the service by pharmacies registered with serversystem 110), a product identifier that is used by application server 116to uniquely identify the particular product, and any other suitableinformation may be included in the respective information record for theproduct that is maintained within available products database 114 i.

Product offer database 114 j is used to maintain information records forhealthcare products that are being offered by pharmacies registered withthe system for purchase by customer users registered with the system. Inthis regard, it should be noted that the same product may be separatelyoffered by multiple different pharmacies registered with the system and,thus, product offer database 114 j can include multiple informationrecords for the same product that are each associated with a differentprovider. For each product offered by a pharmacy for which a respectiveinformation record is maintained within product offer database 114 j,various items of information relevant to the product being offered, suchas the unique product identifier for the information record withinavailable products database 114 i for the product, the unique pharmacyaccount identifier for the account information record within pharmacyprofile database 114 e of the pharmacy that is offering the product, adiscounted price for purchasing the product from the identified pharmacywithin marketplace system 100, a regular price for the product when theservice is purchased outside of the system from the identified pharmacy,a payment amount to be transferred to the pharmacy that is offering theproduct, additional descriptive information that may be provided by thepharmacy offering the product, a product offer identifier that is usedby application server 116 to uniquely identify the information recordfor the offering of the particular product by the pharmacy within thesystem, and any other suitable information may be included in therespective information record for the offered product that is maintainedwithin product offer database 114 j.

The transaction information database 114 k is configured to maintainrecords of purchases made by registered users. Transaction informationdatabase 114 k is used to maintain information records for purchasesthat have been made via the system by registered customer users ofhealthcare services and products being offered by registered providers.For each purchase of a service or product that has been made using thesystem, various items of information relevant to the purchase may beincluded in the respective information record for the purchase that ismaintained within transaction information database 114 k. In general,the items of information relevant to each purchase that is included inthe respective information record for the purchase that is maintainedwithin transaction information database 114 k can include, for example,the unique customer account identifier of the account information recordfor the purchasing customer within customer profile database 114 a, theunique procedure offer identifier of the information record for apurchased service within service offer database 114 h or the uniqueproduct offer identifier of the information record for a purchasedproduct within product offer database 114 j, a purchase date, and aunique transaction identifier that is used by application server 116 touniquely identify the information record for the purchase of the serviceor product within the system. For each purchase of a service that hasbeen made using the system, the items of information relevant to thepurchase included in the respective information record for the purchasethat is maintained within transaction information database 114 k mayfurther include the unique physician account identifier for the accountinformation record within physician profile database 114 b of thephysician user that is designated as performing the purchased service inthe information record for the purchased service within service offerdatabase 114 h, an indication of whether the purchase has been redeemedand, if the purchase has been redeemed, a redemption date.

Additionally, in exemplary embodiments, the information records forpurchased services that are maintained within transaction informationdatabase 114 k can include information records that include additionalinformation for purchases and services that are offered by providersregistered with the system as a bundled set of services. In this regard,the information record for each purchased bundled set of services thatis maintained within transaction information database 114 k may includean indication of a particular outside facility that has been selectedfor performing the primary service of the bundled set of services and,for each service of the bundled set of services that is included withinthe purchase (for example, each required secondary service or eachoptional secondary service selected by the customer user to be includedwithin the purchase, as well as the primary service), the uniquephysician account identifier for the account information record withinphysician profile database 114 b of the physician user that isdesignated as performing the service in the information record for thepurchased service within service offer database 114 h, an indication ofwhether the purchase has been redeemed with respect to that particularservice, and, if the purchase has been redeemed with respect to thatparticular service, a redemption date for that particular service.

FIG. 3A is a screen shot illustrating an example of a graphical userinterface provided by such a home page 300 for customer portal 120. Inthe illustrated example, the search interface provided at home page 300can include a drop-down menu 302, a search entry field 304, a locationentry field 306, and a search button 308. Drop-down menu 302 provides aset of selectable options that allow the user to search for proceduresoffered by provider users registered with the system, particularproducts offered by pharmacy users registered with the system,information on providers registered with the system, and information onhealth conditions that is maintained within system. In exemplaryembodiments, navigation, and search service 124 can be configured to uselocation information that may be gathered by any suitable locationdetermining functionality implemented on the client system to provide adefault location entry (for instance, city name and/or zip code) withinlocation entry field 306. In such embodiments, navigation, and searchservice 124 may be further configured to request permission from theuser via the user interface to be able to access and utilize suchlocation information for this purpose.

In one example, when the user selects the option within drop-down menu302 to search for a particular service offered by provider usersregistered with the system, the user can then proceed to enter the nameof the service within search entry field 304 In conjunction withselecting the particular service, the user can also enter a city nameand/or zip code or opt to utilize a default location entry withinlocation entry field 306 to localize a search radius for providersoffering the selected service for purchase via marketplace system 100.

Once the appropriate search information is entered, the user can thenselect the search button to direct navigation and search service 124 toconduct a search of local providers registered with server system 110and offering the inputted healthcare service for purchase viamarketplace system 100. Navigation and search service 124 can conductsuch a location-based search by accessing, for example, service offerdatabase 114 h in conjunction with physician profile database 114 b,practice group profile database 114 c, hospital system profile database114 d, and/or any other suitable information and databases to which theapplication server has access to filter the information records includedwithin available services database 114 g for healthcare services thatmatch the specified search criteria, and then present the results of thesearch to user within a search result listing page.

In exemplary embodiments, whenever navigation and search service 124 isdirected to conduct a location-based search by a user (for example, forlocal providers offering the inputted healthcare service or, asdiscussed below, for local providers generally or for local pharmacyproviders offering healthcare products), the navigation and searchservice can be configured to maintain the location specified withinlocation entry field 306 for search within a data object for a sessionwith application server 116 that is maintained for the user.

FIG. 3B is a screen shot illustrating an example of a GUI provided by asearch result listing page 310 for customer portal 120 that presents alist of providers offering the service specified within search entryfield 304 within a default search radius (for example, 50 miles) of thelocation specified within location entry field 306 returned in thesearch conducted by navigation and search service 124. In theillustrated example, search result listing page 310 includes a resultlisting section 311, a result filtering section 316, and a resultsorting section 318. Result filtering section 316 provides various userinterface controls for refining the results of the search presentedwithin result listing section 311 by modifying the search criteria orinputting additional search criteria. In the illustrated example, resultfiltering section.

In exemplary embodiments, such a search result listing page 310 can beimplemented to present any other appropriate information relevant to thesearch criteria specified by the user, such as, for example, a graphicdepicting the average cost information included in the informationrecord for the particular product specified in the search criteria thatis maintained in available products database 114 j (for prescriptiondrug products, the average cost information can be provided for adefault quantity of the prescription drug or, alternatively, based on acalculation performed by navigation and search service 124 for thequantity specified by the user using the average cost information for adefault quantity as a reference). Each entry for an offered productlisted in the product search result listing page can include portionspresenting information from the account information record of thepharmacy that is offering the product through the system (for example,pharmacy name, address, and contact information), cost information forpurchasing the offered product through marketplace system 100 (forexample, the discounted price for the product that is specified in theinformation record for the offered product within product offer database114 j or, for prescription drugs, a price that is calculated based onthe specified discounted price in relation to the quantity specified bythe user) and a cost savings difference between the discounted price andthe regular price for the product when the product is purchased outsideof the system as specified in the information record for the offeredproduct), and an option to select to purchase the offered product listedin the entry (for example, via an “Add to Cart” button). When a userselects the option to purchase an offered product listed in the productsearch result listing page, navigation and search service 124 can beconfigured to update the session data object for the session withapplication server 116 that is presently being maintained for the userto include an indication that the user has selected the offered productfor purchasing (for example, by including the product offer identifierthat is maintained within product offer database 114 j to uniquelyidentify the offering of the particular product by the pharmacy) inassociation with any other required information (for example, in thecase of a prescription drug, the quantity that is specified by the userand the price that is calculated based on the discounted price for theproduct that is specified in the information record for the offeredproduct within product offer database 114 j in relation to the quantityspecified by the user). Upon selecting one or more services and/orproducts for purchase in association with a session with applicationserver 116, the user may then have an option to navigate to a customerpurchase page (for example, a “Check-Out” page) to proceed withpurchasing the selected item(s) with respect to an account informationrecord maintained within customer profile database 114 a for aregistered customer user.

For each offered service for which a respective entry is included in thepurchase information section, the entry may include, for example,information retrieved from physician profile database 114 b, availableservices database 114 g, service offer database 114 h, and the sessiondata object such as the name of the physician that will perform theservice, a service name, and an indication of whether the service isbeing offered as a primary service of a bundled set of services. Eachentry for an offered service that is included in the purchaseinformation section may further include user interface controlsaccessible by the user to remove the offered service from the purchaseinformation section (and correspondingly direct purchasing service 126to remove the indication the offered service as having been selected inthe session data object) and/or to adjust a service quantity to bepurchased by the user, and a price for purchasing the offered servicethat is calculated based on the service quantity specified by the userand the discounted price for the service that is specified in theinformation record for the offered service within service offer database114 h in relation to the quantity specified by the user.

In addition, for each entry for an offered service included in thepurchase information section that is being offered as a primary serviceof a bundled set of services, the entry may further include userinterface controls accessible by the user to present additionalinformation about the bundled set of services and make additionalselections regarding the offered service. The additional information mayinclude, for example, information retrieved from physician profiledatabase 114 b, available services database 114 g, and service offerdatabase 114 h, such as the name of physician that will perform eachsecondary service, a service name for each secondary service, anindication of whether each secondary service is required or optional,and an indication of whether the primary service is required to beperformed at an outside facility. In association with each secondaryservice for which an indication that the secondary service is optionalis presented, the additional information may further include thediscounted price for the secondary service that is specified in theinformation record for the offered service within service offer database114 h, and an associated user interface control may be provided thatallows the user to select whether to purchase the optional secondaryservice in association with the offered service. In association with anindication that the primary service is required to be performed at anoutside facility, the additional information may further include nameand location information for each facility for which information isspecified in the information record for the offered service withinservice offer database 114 h, and, if information is specified for morethan one facility in the information record for the offered service, thefacility fee for each specified facility may be presented in associationwith a user interface control that is provided to allow the user toselect one of the facilities at which to have the primary serviceperformed. Purchasing service 126 can be configured to, based on anyoptional secondary service and facility selections that are made by theuser with respect to an entry for an offered service included in thepurchase information section that is being offered as a primary serviceof a bundled set of services, recalculate and update the price forpurchasing the offered service that is presented in the entry for theoffered service. In exemplary embodiments, the default initial settingsfor any optional secondary service and multiple facility selections fora service being offered as a primary service of a bundled set ofservices and, thereby, the default initial price for purchasing theoffered service that is presented in the entry for the offered service,may be based on a selection to purchase each optional secondary serviceand a selection of the facility having the lowest facility fee.

In the example screen shot depicted in FIG. 3B, each entry for anoffered service listed in result listing section 311 includes a firstportion 312 presenting information from the account information recordwithin physician profile database 114 b of the physician that willperform the service as specified in the information record for theoffered service within service offer database 114 h (for example, thephysician's name, specialty, and profile picture), a second portion 313presenting information from the account information record of theprovider that is offering the service through the system (for example,provider name) and the location at which the offered service will beperformed (for example, address and telephone number), and a thirdportion 314 presenting cost information for purchasing the offeredservice through application server 116 (for example, the discountedprice for the service that is specified in the information record forthe offered service within service offer database 114 h and a costsavings difference between the discounted price and the regular pricefor the service when the service is purchased outside of the system fromthe provider as specified in the information record for the offeredservice within service offer database 114 h), and an option to select topurchase the offered service listed in the entry (for example, via an“Add to Cart” button included within third portion 314). When a userselects the option to purchase an offered service listed in resultlisting section 311, navigation and search service 124 can be configuredto update the session data object for the session with applicationserver 116 that is presently being maintained for the user to include anindication that the user has selected the offered service for purchasing(for example, by including the procedure offer identifier that ismaintained within service offer database 114 h to uniquely identify theoffering of the particular service by the provider).

Referring now to FIG. 3C, a screen shot illustrating an example of a GUIprovided by a healthcare service information page 320 implemented bynavigation and search service 124 for a particular healthcare service isprovided. In the illustrated example, healthcare service informationpage 320 includes a procedure overview section 322, a cost comparisongraphic 324, and a provider listing section 326.

The information presented in provider listing section 326 can begenerated in a manner similar to the information included in resultlisting section 311 of example search result listing page 310 depictedin FIG. 3B to present a list of providers offering the particularservice within a default search radius (for example, 50 miles) of alocation determined by navigation and search service 124. The particularlocation that is utilized for this purpose may be determined using, forexample, a location that is stored within the session data object forthe session with application server 116 that is presently beingmaintained for the user or location information that is gathered by anysuitable location determining functionality implemented on the clientsystem to provide a default location entry. In the present example,provider listing section 326 presents an entry for each offered servicefor which a respective information record is maintained within serviceoffer database 114 h that matches the particular service for whichhealthcare service information page 320 is generated and along with thedetermined location. Each entry for an offered service listed inprovider listing section 326 presents information from the accountinformation record within physician profile database 114 b of thephysician that will perform the service as specified in the informationrecord for the offered service within service offer database 114 h (forexample, the physician's name and profile picture) and cost informationfor purchasing the offered service through application server 116 (forexample, the discounted price for the service that is specified in theinformation record for the offered service within service offer database114 h). In the present example, provider listing section furtherincludes a location entry field 327 that, in conjunction with a “submit”button 328, allows a user to specify a particular location (for example,a city name and/or zip code) and submit a request for navigation andsearch service 124 to conduct a search and update the informationpresented in provider listing section 326 to present a list of providersoffering the particular service within the default search radius of thenewly specified location. Navigation and search service 124 can also beconfigured to, in response to such a request, update the location thatis maintained within the session data object for the session withapplication server 116 that is presently being maintained for the user.

In exemplary embodiments, as further illustrated in FIG. 3D, physicianinformation section 332 can further include additional user interfaceelements such as a “Leave a review” button 333, a “Request anappointment” button 334, and a map element 335 depicting a mappedlocation of an office location included within respective accountinformation record that is maintained for the particular physician userin physician profile database 114 b (which navigation and search service124 may be configured to generate by remotely accessing a third-partymapping service). In response to a user selecting “Leave a review”button 333, navigation and search service 124 can be configured toimplement suitable user interface controls for allowing the user to postor submit a review of the particular physician to server system 110. Inresponse to receiving such a review, navigation and search service 124can be configured to, for example, include information pertaining to thereview within the respective account information record that ismaintained for the particular physician user in physician profiledatabase 114 b or send an electronic message to the physician userpertaining to the review, for example, by way of email utilizing thecontact information specified in the respective account informationrecord for the physician.

In response to a user selecting “Request an appointment” button 334,navigation and search service 124 can be configured to implementsuitable user interface controls for allowing the user to submit arequest for scheduling an appointment to the particular physician user(for example, by sending a notification to the physician user byutilizing the contact information specified in the respective accountinformation record for the physician that includes contact informationfor the user). Navigation and search service 124 may also be configuredto implement suitable user interface controls for allowing the user toschedule an appointment with the particular physician user. Navigationand search service 124 may provide this functionality by, for example,accessing a service with which the particular physician user isassociated, which may be a service offered by application server 116 oroffered by a third-party service provider.

In the present example, as illustrated in FIG. 3D, the informationpresented in offered procedures section 336 of physician profile page330 can include a listing of healthcare services offered by theparticular physician for purchase through marketplace system 100.

In the illustrated example, physician profile page 330 includes aphysician information section 332 and an offered procedures section 336.The information presented in physician information section 332 can begenerated based on the information that is included in the respectiveaccount information record that is maintained for the particularphysician user in physician profile database 114 b and may includevarious items of information relevant to the physician, such as name,practice specialty, office location(s) and hours, a profile picture,contact information, biographical information (such as awards, honors,publications, patient testimonials, and other information that may be ofinterest to prospective customers accessing the system), URLs orreferences to websites and social media profiles, and group practice andhospital affiliation(s).

In exemplary embodiments, the user interface implemented by accountmanagement service 122 may be further configured to provide userinterface controls for requesting authorization for payment of apredetermined fee to gain access to the ability to make prepaidpurchases of healthcare services and products offered within marketplacesystem 100. The payment information input by the user may be aninstruction to use the billing information included within therespective account information record established for the user withincustomer profile database 114 a or submission of alternative paymentinformation such as, for example, bank account information, credit ordebit card information, or other electronic payment information (such asinformation for utilizing an account the user has with PayPal or anyanother entity facilitating payments and money transfers to be madethrough the Internet), which may be for an account maintained for theuser or an account maintained for another person or entity that the useris authorized to utilize for this purpose.

Account management service 122 can be configured to, upon theauthorization and appropriate payment information being provided by theuser, access a corresponding third-party payment servicing system andutilize the payment information to direct the payment servicing systemto transfer the amount for the payment authorized by the user from theaccount servicer of the user to a financial account maintained by theproviders of marketplace system 100. In this regard, the respectiveaccount information record established for the user within customerprofile database 114 a can further include an account status that ismanaged by account management service 122 for the user indicatingwhether the user is presently provided with the ability to make prepaidpurchases of healthcare services and products offered within marketplacesystem 100.

Upon a user registering a customer account with server system 110 toestablish an account information record within customer profile database114 a and logging into his or her customer account (for example, byaccessing a login user interface element or a login screen within theuser interface implemented by customer portal 120 to provide the username and password associated with the account), the user then proceedswith purchasing any offered service or product for which the sessiondata object for the session with application server 116 that is beingmaintained for the user includes an indication that the user hasselected for purchasing. For example, upon the user selecting an optionwithin the user interface implemented by navigation and search services124 to navigate to a customer purchase page and initiate a purchasingsession with purchasing service 126 to purchase one or more of theoffered items indicated as having been selected by the user in thesession data object in association with the registered customer accountfor the user.

The purchase information section included within the user interfaceimplemented for the payment page may further include a total price forthe purchase that is equal to a sum of the respective price forpurchasing the corresponding offered item included for each entryincluded in the purchasing information section. In exemplaryembodiments, purchasing service 126 may be configured to adjust thetotal price based on any applicable state taxes or any discount codessubmitted by the user. In this regard, purchasing service 126 may befurther implemented to provide a user interface element allowing a userto submit any application discount codes to application server 116.

For this purpose, the user interface controls implemented within apayment section may include a button that is accessible by the user toprovide authorization for the request to be issued to the specifiedfunding source (for example, a “Submit” or “Purchase” button) alongsuitable user interface elements accessible by the user to input thepurchase information specifying the funding source to use for thepurchase. The purchase information input by the user may be aninstruction to use the billing information included within therespective account information record for the customer account of theuser within customer profile database 114 a or submission of alternativepurchase information such as, for example, bank account information,credit or debit card information, or other electronic paymentinformation (such as information for utilizing an account the user haswith PayPal or any another entity facilitating payments and moneytransfers to be made through the Internet). The purchase informationmay, for example, specify an account maintained for the user, an accountmaintained for another person or entity that the user is authorized toutilize for this purpose, or an entity that has arranged to be invoicedand provide reimbursement for purchases of healthcare services andproducts made by the user within marketplace system 100.

Purchasing server 126 can also be configured to, upon processing thepayment for the purchase of the offered service, generate a voucher forthe customer user within the user interface for the purchased servicethat can be utilized by the customer user to redeem the purchase andreceive the service from the physician specified for the offered service(the providers of marketplace system 100 can have pre-arrangedagreements with providers registered with the system that the providerswill agree to honor such vouchers generated by purchasing server 126 forpurchased services). An example of such a voucher is illustrated in FIG.4A. As depicted in the example, example voucher 400 can be generated toinclude identifying information for the customer user 402, identifyingand contact information for the physician specified for the offeredservice 404, a description of the purchased service 406, a confirmationnumber 408 for the purchase, which may be generated by purchasing server126 based on the unique transaction identifier that is included in therespective information record for the purchase that is maintained withintransaction information database 114 k, and instructions for redeemingthe voucher 410. The confirmation number may also be provided in theelectronic confirmation message to the customer user and electronicnotifications to the physician user that will be performing the serviceand the provider user for the offered service sent by purchasing system126 to the customer user. The voucher can be presented to the userwithin the user interface, for example, as printable and/or machinereadable form.

Purchasing server 126 can be configured to, upon processing the paymentfor the purchase of the offered service that is being offered as aprimary service in conjunction with a bundled set of services, navigatethe user interface to a purchase confirmation page and send anelectronic confirmation message to the customer user and electronicnotifications to each physician that will perform a service of thebundled set of services and the provider user for the offered service(as specified according to the information record for the offeredservice within service offer database 114 h), for example, by way ofemail utilizing the contact information specified in the respectiveaccount information records for the customer, the physicians, and theprovider for the offered service. Purchasing server 126 can also beconfigured to generate a respective information record for the completedpurchase with corresponding information within transaction informationdatabase 114 k, which initially indicates that the purchase has not yetbeen redeemed with respect to the primary service, each secondaryservice, and any facility specified for the purchased offered service.

Purchasing server 126 can also be configured to, upon processing thepayment for the purchase of the offered service that is being offered asa primary service in conjunction with a bundled set of services,generate a voucher for the customer user within the user interface forthe purchased service that can be utilized by the customer user toredeem the purchase and receive the service from the correspondingphysician specified for each of the services of the bundled set ofservices (the providers of marketplace system 100 can have pre-arrangedagreements with providers registered with the system that the providerswill agree to honor such vouchers generated by purchasing server 126 forpurchased services). An example of such a voucher for a bundled set ofservices is illustrated in FIG. 4B. As depicted in the example, examplevoucher 400 can be generated to include identifying information for thecustomer user 402, identifying and contact information for eachphysician specified for a service and any facility included in theoffered service 404, a description of each service of the purchasedservice 406, a confirmation number 408 for the purchase, which may begenerated by purchasing server 126 based on the unique transactionidentifier that is included in the respective information record for thepurchase that is maintained within transaction information database 114k, and instructions for redeeming the voucher 410. The confirmationnumber (or any other suitable redemption information such as a one- ortwo-dimensional bar code, a QR code, or any other form ofmachine-readable information) may also be provided in the electronicconfirmation message to the customer user and electronic notificationsto the physician user that will be performing the service and theprovider user for the offered service sent by purchasing system 126 tothe customer user. The voucher can be presented to the user within theuser interface, for example, as printable and/or machine-readable form.

Upon the user indicating an intention to register as a physician user,the user will be able to initiate a registration session with accountmanagement service 131 to register a physician account with serversystem 110. Account management service 131 may be configured, forexample, to implement a user interface that includes a series of pageswith user interface controls accessible by the user to guide the userthrough the account registration process and prompt the user to inputvarious types of information or media to be maintained by databaseserver 112 within a respective account information record that isestablished for the user within physician profile database 114 b suchas, for example, name, practice specialty, office location(s) and hours,a profile picture, contact information (such as an email address and/ora telephone number), biographical information (such as awards, honors,publications, patient testimonials, and other information that can behelpful for marketing the physician to customers accessing the system),URLs or references to websites and social media profiles, compensationinformation (indicating a financial account for receiving payment forpurchases of services offered by the physician via the system),information pertaining to outside facilities that are used forparticular services performed by the physician (for example, informationpertaining to particular hospitals or clinics such as name, address,contact information, facility fee, and compensation informationindicating a financial account that is used by the facility forreceiving a facility fee), and any other suitable identifying ordescriptive information. The user interface may also be implemented byaccount management service 131 to prompt the user for any groupaffiliation codes or hospital affiliation codes.

Procedure management service 133 may be configured, for example, toimplement a user interface that includes a series of pages with userinterface controls accessible by the user to guide the user through theservice offering process and prompt the user to input various types ofinformation to be maintained by database server 112 within a respectiveinformation record that is established in association with the uniquephysician account identifier for the physician within service offerdatabase 114 h. Upon the user indicating an intention to offer ahealthcare service for purchase (for example, by selecting a “OfferService” tab within the practice group account page implemented byprovider portal 130), the user will be able to initiate a serviceoffering with procedure management service 133 to offer a healthcareservice performed by affiliated physicians for purchase via serversystem 110. For example, the user may be provided with a drop-down menuproviding a list of selectable medical specialties and, upon selecting aparticular medical specialty, the user can be presented with a list ofselectable healthcare services for which an information record for theservice is maintained within available services database 114 g inassociation with the specialty.

Upon the user selecting a particular service from this list, proceduremanagement service 133 can assist the user with offering the service forpurchase and establish the respective information record for the offeredservice within service offer database 114 h. In particular, proceduremanagement service 133 can present the user with a selectable list ofthe physician users affiliated with the practice group from which theuser can submit an indication one or more of the affiliated physicianswith which to offer the service in conjunction with the practice groupaccount. For each selected affiliated physician user, proceduremanagement service 133 can establish a respective information record forthe offered service within service offer database 114 h by populatingthe information record with the unique procedure identifier for theinformation record within available services database 114 g for theselected service, the unique account identifier for the accountinformation record for the practice group within physician profiledatabase 114 b as the provider that is offering the service through thesystem, the unique account identifier for the account information recordfor the physician user within physician profile database 114 b as thephysician user will perform the service, a location at which the servicewill be performed, the unique account identifier for the accountinformation record (within physician profile database 114 b, practicegroup profile database 114 c, or hospital system profile database 114 d)of the provider for which payment for the service when purchased throughthe system is to be directed (or, alternatively, other financial accountinformation) as indicated by user input received from the practice groupadministrator, a payment amount to be transferred to the provider orother financial account for which payment for the service is to bedirected as specified by user input received from the practice groupadministrator, a discounted price for purchasing the service withinmarketplace system 100 (which may be calculated, for example, by addinga negotiated commission fee to the payment amount specified by thepractice group administrator), a regular price for the service when theservice is purchased outside of the system, additional descriptiveinformation that may be provided via input received from the practicegroup administrator, a procedure offer identifier, and any othersuitable information (such as an indication that the service is requiredto be performed at an outside facility and relevant facility informationas specified by user input received from the practice groupadministrator).

In exemplary embodiments, procedure management service 133 can alsoassist the practice group administrator with offering services forpurchase as a bundled set of services within marketplace system 100 andestablishing the respective information record for the service offeredas a bundled set of services within service offer database 114 h. Inparticular, procedure management service 133 can present the user withan option to indicate that a particular service selected by the usershould be offered as a primary service of a bundled set of services or,alternatively, the information record for a particular service selectedby the user that is maintained within available services database 114 gcan include an indication that the service can be offered by providerswithin marketplace system 100 as a primary service of a bundled set of aplurality of services.

For a selected service for which such an indication is provided,procedure management service 133 may be configured, for example, toimplement user interface controls accessible by the user to guide theuser through the process for offering the selected service as a primaryservice of a bundled set of services and prompt the user to inputvarious types of information to populate a respective information recordthat is established in association with the unique practice groupaccount identifier for the practice group within service offer database114 h. Procedure management service 133 can first present the user witha selectable list of the physician users affiliated with the practicegroup from which the user can submit an indication of affiliatedphysicians with which to offer the primary service in conjunction withthe practice group account and then populate the information pertainingto the primary service in the information record with the uniqueprocedure identifier for the information record within availableservices database 114 g for the selected service, the unique accountidentifier for the account information record for the practice groupwithin physician profile database 114 b as the provider that is offeringthe primary service through the system, the unique account identifierfor the account information record for the physician user withinphysician profile database 114 b as the physician user will perform theprimary service, a location at which the primary service will beperformed, the unique account identifier for the account informationrecord (within physician profile database 114 b, practice group profiledatabase 114 c, or hospital system profile database 114 d) of theprovider for which payment for the primary service when purchasedthrough the system is to be directed (or, alternatively, other financialaccount information) as indicated by user input received from thepractice group administrator, a payment amount to be transferred to theprovider or other financial account for which payment for the primaryservice is to be directed as specified by user input received from thepractice group administrator, a discounted price for purchasing theprimary service within marketplace system 100 (which may be calculated,for example, by adding a negotiated commission fee to the payment amountfor the primary service specified by the practice group administrator),a regular price for the primary service when the primary service ispurchased outside of the system, additional descriptive information thatmay be provided via input received from the practice groupadministrator, a procedure offer identifier, and any other suitableinformation.

Procedure management service 133 can then receive an indication, eitherfrom the information record for a particular service selected by theuser that is maintained within available services database 114 g orthrough selections made by the user of services offered by affiliatedphysicians for which an information record for the service is maintainedwithin available services database 114 g, of one or more secondaryservices to be included in the bundled set of services. Proceduremanagement service can then populate the information pertaining to eachsecondary service in the information record with the unique procedureidentifier for the information record within available services database114 g for the secondary service (or the secondary procedure identifierthat is included in the available services database 114 g to uniquelyidentify the particular secondary service in association with the uniqueprocedure identifier for the offered primary service where theinformation record for the primary service being offered in theavailable services database 114 g includes an indication that theservice is offered as a primary service of a bundled set of services),the unique physician account identifier for the account informationrecord within physician profile database 114 b of the physician userthat will perform the secondary service, a location at which the servicewill be performed, the unique account identifier for the accountinformation record (within physician profile database 114 b, practicegroup profile database 114 c, or hospital system profile database 114 d)of the provider for which payment for the primary service when purchasedthrough the system is to be directed (or, alternatively, other financialaccount information) as indicated by user input received from thepractice group administrator, a payment amount to be transferred to theprovider or other financial account for which payment for the secondaryservice is to be directed as specified by user input received from thepractice group administrator, a discounted price for purchasing thesecondary service within marketplace system 100 (which may becalculated, for example, by adding a negotiated commission fee to thepayment amount for the secondary service specified by the practice groupadministrator), a regular price for the secondary service when thesecondary service is purchased outside of the system, and an indicationof whether performance of the secondary service is optional or requiredin association with performance of the primary service. Proceduremanagement service can further populate the information in theinformation record with an indication of whether the primary service isto be performed at an outside facility and, if the primary service is tobe performed at an outside facility, items of information pertaining toeach of one or more facilities that may be used to perform the primaryservice such as, for example, name, address, contact information,facility fee, and compensation information indicating a financialaccount that is used by the facility for receiving a facility fee (asspecified by user input received from the practice group administrator).

Upon the user indicating an intention to request payment for a purchasedservice that have been performed (for example, by selecting a “VoucherProcessing” tab within the physician account page implemented byprovider portal 130), the user will be able to initiate a voucherprocessing session with transaction processing service 136. Inparticular, transaction processing service 136 may be configured, forexample, to implement a voucher history page within the user interfacethat presents information relevant to the physician user for a list ofpurchases for which the respective information record for the purchasethat is maintained within transaction information database 114 kincludes the unique physician account identifier for the physician userwithin physician profile database 114 b as the physician user that isdesignated as performing a service included the purchase (for example, aprimary or secondary service for a bundled set of services). Therelevant information for each listed purchase may include, for example,the voucher confirmation number or redemption code, name and contactinformation for the customer user, a description of the service thephysician user is designated as performing for the purchase, a purchasedate, and a voucher redemption status. Such a voucher history page mayalso be accessed in association with the user account for the physicianuser to verify vouchers presented by customers requesting to have aservice performed in association with a voucher.

Transaction processing service 136 can be configured to, upon such averification being submitted, initiate a transfer of the payment amountspecified for the service performed by the physician user in serviceoffer database 114 h and held in the financial account maintained by theproviders of marketplace system 100 to the financial account listed forreceiving the payment amount for service that is specified in serviceoffer database 114 h. Additionally, if the service performed by thephysician is a primary service of a bundled set of services for which aparticular outside facility that has been selected for performing theprimary service, transaction processing service 136 can be configured toinitiate a transfer or otherwise direct a disbursement of the facilityfee specified for the service performed by the physician user in serviceoffer database 114 h and held in the financial account maintained by theproviders of marketplace system 100 to the financial account for thefacility that is indicated by the compensation information for thefacility. Transaction processing service 136 can be configured to updatethe indication of whether the purchase has been redeemed with respect tothat particular service (and facility if one is associated with theservice in the purchase) and include the redemption date for thatparticular service in the information record for the purchased servicethat is maintained within transaction information database 114 k. Inaddition, transaction processing service can further be configured tosend electronic notifications to the customer user, the physician user,and the provider user for the offered service (as specified according tothe corresponding information records within service offer database 114h and transaction information database 114 k), for example, by way ofemail utilizing the contact information specified in the respectiveaccount information records for the customer, the physician, and theprovider for the offered service. Upon the user indicating an intentionwithin the physician account page implemented by provider portal 130 toaccess various account management functions, the user can access varioususer interface elements provided by account management service 131 to,for example, manage personal and payment or purchase information, manageinformation pertaining to services offered for purchase by the physicianuser, manage group practice and hospital affiliations, and view ahistory of transactions performed for services offered for purchase bythe physician user within server system 110 (and relevant informationfor each purchase including voucher redemption status).

The voucher history page can also provide a user interface element inassociation with each of the listed purchases for which the voucherredemption status for the service the physician user is designated asperforming indicates the service has not been performed that isaccessible by the physician user to submit a verification to applicationserver 116 that the physician user has performed the service for thecustomer user in accordance with the purchase.

Referring again to FIG. 2 , in exemplary embodiments, when a useroperating a client system to access application server 116 via acorresponding client application executing on the client systeminitiates a registration with server system 110 and specifies anintention to register as a practice group administrator (for example,via a user interface element on any page implemented by navigation andsearch service 124), the user will be able to initiate a registrationsession with account management service 131 to register a practice groupaccount with server system 110. Account management service 131 may beconfigured, for example, to implement a user interface that includes aseries of pages with user interface controls accessible by the user toguide the user through the account registration process and prompt theuser to input various types of information or media to be maintained bydatabase server 112 within a respective account information record thatis established for the user within practice group profile database 114 csuch as, for example, practice group name, location and hours, contactinformation (such as an email address and/or a telephone number), URLsor references to websites and social media profiles for the practicegroup, information pertaining to outside facilities that are used forparticular procedures by physicians affiliated with the practice group,(for example, information pertaining to particular hospitals or clinicssuch as name, address, contact information, facility fee, andcompensation information indicating a financial account that is used bythe facility for receiving a facility fee), compensation information(indicating a financial account for receiving payment for purchases ofservices that are performed by affiliated physicians via the system),and any other suitable identifying or descriptive information.

The voucher history page can also provide a user interface element inassociation with each of the listed purchases for which the voucherredemption status for the service indicates the service has not beenperformed that is accessible by the practice group user to submit averification to application server 116 that the affiliated physicianuser specified as performing the service has performed the service forthe customer user in accordance with the purchase.

In exemplary embodiments, when a user operating a client system toaccess application server 116 via a corresponding client applicationexecuting on the client system initiates a registration with serversystem 110 and specifies an intention to register as a hospital systemadministrator (for example, via a user interface element on any pageimplemented by navigation and search service 124), the user will be ableto initiate a registration session with account management service 131to register a hospital system account with server system 110. Accountmanagement service 131 may be configured, for example, to implement auser interface that includes a series of pages with user interfacecontrols accessible by the user to guide the user through the accountregistration process and prompt the user to input various types ofinformation or media to be maintained by database server 112 within arespective account information record that is established for the userwithin hospital system profile database 114 d such as, for example,contact information (such as an email address and/or a telephonenumber), information pertaining to outside facilities that can be usedfor particular procedures by physicians affiliated with the hospitalsystem (for example, information pertaining to particular hospitals orclinics such as name, address, contact information, facility fee, andcompensation information indicating a financial account for that is usedby the facility for receiving a facility fee), compensation information(indicating a financial account for receiving payment for purchases ofservices performed by affiliated physicians via the system), and anyother suitable identifying or descriptive information.

In exemplary embodiments, the functionality that is provided withinprovider portal 130 for users of hospital system accounts can vary incertain respects from the functionality that may be provided withinprovider portal 130 for users of practice group accounts. For example,with respect to physicians that are affiliated with the hospital systemaccount, users of hospital system accounts may only be provided withaccess rights (for example, to view, modify, and specify in a servicebeing offered by the hospital system for purchase) to services offeredfor purchase by affiliated physician users that have been specified bythe physician users as being hospital procedures with respect to thephysician accounts. Hospital system users may also be provided withfunctionality to, as an alternative to selecting a service by accessinga list of selectable medical specialties when initiating a serviceoffering with procedure management service 133 to offer a serviceperformed by affiliated physicians for purchase via server system 110,submit a search query for a service by inputting descriptive terms or amedical code number that is used to identify the service (for example,according to the CPT code set) or access a list of affiliated physiciansand, upon selecting a particular affiliated physician from the list, bepresented with a list of selectable healthcare services for which aninformation record for the service is maintained within service offerdatabase 114 h that indicates the selected physician as the physicianthat will perform the service.

In addition, because a hospital system may be more likely to offer ahigher quantity of services for purchase as a bundled set of serviceswithin marketplace system 100 than other types of provider users, thefunctionality implemented by provider portal 130 within the userinterface for allowing a user of a hospital system account to manageinformation pertaining to services offered by the hospital system forpurchase and to view a history of transactions performed for servicesoffered for purchase by the hospital system within server system 110 mayinclude an additional user interface element that is accessible by auser for the hospital system account manage and view informationpertaining to only services that are offered by the hospital system as abundled set of services.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system 600 that canbe used for implementing exemplary embodiments of the present invention.Computer system 600 includes one or more processors, such as processor604. Processor 604 is connected to a communication infrastructure 602(for example, a communications bus, cross-over bar, or network). Varioussoftware embodiments are described in terms of this exemplary computersystem. After reading this description, it will become apparent to aperson of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s) how to implement theinvention using other computer systems and/or computer architectures.

Exemplary computer system 600 can include a display interface 608 thatforwards graphics, text, and other data from the communicationinfrastructure 602 (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on adisplay unit 610. Computer system 600 also includes a main memory 606,which can be random access memory (RAM), and may also include asecondary memory 612. Secondary memory 612 may include, for example, ahard disk drive 614 and/or a removable storage drive 616, representing afloppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc.Removable storage drive 616 reads from and/or writes to a removablestorage unit 618 in a manner well known to those having ordinary skillin the art. Removable storage unit 618, represents, for example, afloppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which is read by andwritten to by removable storage drive 616. As will be appreciated,removable storage unit 618 includes a computer usable storage mediumhaving stored therein computer software and/or data.

In exemplary embodiments, secondary memory 612 may include other similarmeans for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loadedinto the computer system. Such means may include, for example, aremovable storage unit 622 and an interface 620. Examples of such mayinclude a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that foundin video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM, orPROM) and associated socket, and other removable storage units 622 andinterfaces 620 which allow software and data to be transferred from theremovable storage unit 622 to computer system 600.

Computer system 600 may also include a communications interface 624.Communications interface 624 allows software and data to be transferredbetween the computer system and external devices. Examples ofcommunications interface 624 may include a modem, a network interface(such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a PCMCIA slot andcard etc. Software and data transferred via communications interface 624are in the form of signals which may be, for example, electronic,electromagnetic, optical, or other signals capable of being received bycommunications interface 624. These signals are provided tocommunications interface 624 via a communications path (that is,channel) 626. Channel 626 carries signals and may be implemented usingwire or cable, fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, an RFlink, and/or other communications channels.

In this document, the terms “computer program medium,” “computer usablemedium,” and “computer readable medium” are used to generally refer tomedia such as main memory 606 and secondary memory 612, removablestorage drive 616, a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 614, andsignals. These computer program products are means for providingsoftware to the computer system. The computer readable medium allows thecomputer system to read data, instructions, messages or message packets,and other computer readable information from the computer readablemedium. The computer readable medium, for example, may includenon-volatile memory, such as Floppy, ROM, Flash memory, Disk drivememory, CD-ROM, and other permanent storage. It can be used, forexample, to transport information, such as data and computerinstructions, between computer systems. Furthermore, the computerreadable medium may comprise computer readable information in atransitory state medium such as a network link and/or a networkinterface including a wired network or a wireless network that allow acomputer to read such computer readable information.

Computer programs (also called computer control logic) are stored inmain memory 606 and/or secondary memory 612. Computer programs may alsobe received via communications interface 624. Such computer programs,when executed, can enable the computer system to perform the features ofexemplary embodiments of the present invention as discussed herein. Inparticular, the computer programs, when executed, enable processor 604to perform the features of computer system 600. Accordingly, suchcomputer programs represent controllers of the computer system.

Referring now to FIG. 6 , a schematic diagram illustrating an examplenetwork architecture for healthcare marketplace system 100 within whichan exemplary embodiment of a provider pricing tool in accordance withthe present invention is implemented. It should of course be understoodthat FIG. 6 is intended as an example, not as an architecturallimitation for different embodiments of the present invention, andtherefore, the particular elements depicted in FIG. 6 should not beconsidered limiting with regard to the environments within whichexemplary embodiments of the present invention may be implemented.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 6 , the particular components thatare utilized for providing the provider pricing tool are integratedwithin system 100 in conjunction with the components of the system asdescribed above with reference to the exemplary embodiments illustratedFIGS. 1 and 2 . More specifically, the pricing tool 137 is shown in FIG.6 as being implemented within procedure management service 133 includedwithin provider portal 130, and data store 114 further comprises aservice pricing information database 114 m and a cost adjustmentinformation database 114 n that are maintained by database server 112,are accessed by application server 116 via database services provided ata front end by database server 112, and retain information collectedfrom a variety of data sources that is utilized in providing theservices offered via the provider pricing tool within the networkservice provided by the application server, as described below ingreater detail.

In the present exemplary embodiments, for use in conjunction with thephysician service pricing information within service pricing informationdatabase 114 m, a corresponding set of cost adjustment data can becompiled and maintained within cost adjustment information database 114n that can be applied to account for geographical variances in physiciancosts. The cost adjustment data can, for instance, be compiled fromand/or determined based upon the Geographic Practice Cost Indices(GPCis), which is used along with RVUs in Medicare Physician FeeSchedule (PFS) provided by CMS to determine allowable payment amountsfor medical procedures in a manner that reflects geographical variationsin practice cost. GPCis are used to help standardize the differences inresource costs incurred in operating a private medical practice acrossgeographic areas when those costs are compared with the national averagecosts for the physician work, practice expense, and malpracticeinsurance components of the fee schedule.

More specifically, the CMS has established a GPCI for every Medicarepayment locality for each of the three relative value unit componentsfor a procedure (that is, the RVUs for work, practice expense, andmalpractice), and the GPCis are applied in the calculation of a feeschedule payment amount by multiplying the RVU for each component timesthe GPCI for that component. A listing of the current GPCI localitystructure, including state, locality area (and when applicable, countiesassigned to each locality area), and the corresponding GPCis for eachlocality, can be obtained from the CMS website, and this information canbe compiled and maintained within cost adjustment information database114 n by a back-end administrator of server system 110. In exemplaryembodiments, a specific cost adjustment factor can be determined basedon the GPCI information for each designated locality area and maintainedwithin cost adjustment information database 114 n. For example, astandard rate adjustment factor for each designated locality area can bedetermined by calculating an average (or any other suitable aggregate orcomposite-based) factor by which the corresponding GPCis for thelocality impact the standard national rate derived for each service. Asanother example, such a standard rate adjustment factor for eachdesignated locality area can be derived directly from the GeographicAdjustment Factor (GAF) that is determined for the locality by CMS. TheGAF for each designated locality area is calculated as the weightedaverage of the three GPCis, where the weights are the percentage of RVUsnationally made up by the PW, PE, and MP RVUs.

In another example, for each service for which the information recordwithin service pricing information database 114 m includes an indicationthat the service is offered as a primary service of a bundled set ofservices along with an indication that the primary service is requiredto be performed at an outside facility, the respective pricinginformation that is included in the information record for the use ofthe outside facility can be determined by whether the use of the outsidefacility is classified as a facility outpatient service or a facilityinpatient service. For instance, for each facility outpatient service,the respective pricing information that is included in the informationrecord for the use of the outside facility can be obtained from the APCprice data that is maintained in association with CPT or HCPCS procedurecodes by CMS. CMS assigns individual services classified according toHCPCS codes to APCs based on similar clinical characteristics andsimilar costs. Thus, APCs are essentially line-level fee schedules inwhich each HCPCS code for a service is assigned to one of hundreds ofindividual APCs, and for almost every APC, the fee is determined bymultiplying a prospectively established scaled relative weight for theservice's clinical APC by a conversion factor (CF) to arrive at anational unadjusted payment rate for the APC.

Accordingly, in exemplary embodiments, for each service for which arespective information record is maintained within service pricinginformation database 114 m and a corresponding APC is provided by CMS,the corresponding national unadjusted payment rate for the facilityoutpatient service can be included in the set of pricing information ofthe respective information record for the service within service pricinginformation database 114 m.

In the present exemplary embodiment, for use in conjunction with thefacility outpatient service pricing information within service pricinginformation database 114 m discussed above, a corresponding set of costadjustment data can be compiled and maintained within cost adjustmentinformation database 114 n that can be applied to account for geographicdifferences. The cost adjustment data for the facility outpatientservice pricing information can, for instance, be compiled from and/ordetermined based upon the facility wage index that is maintained by theCMS.

In the present exemplary embodiment, for use in conjunction with thefacility inpatient service pricing information within service pricinginformation database 114 m discussed above, a corresponding set of costadjustment data can be compiled and maintained within cost adjustmentinformation database 114 n that can be applied to account for geographicdifferences.

Similar to the example discussed above with regard to the costadjustment data for the facility outpatient service pricing information,the cost adjustment data for the facility inpatient service pricinginformation can, for instance, be compiled from and/or determined basedupon the facility wage index that is maintained by the CMS. As notedabove, in exemplary embodiments, the facility wage index information canbe obtained from CMS and maintained within cost adjustment informationdatabase 114 n.

In this regard, it should be noted that certain services for which therespective information record within service pricing informationdatabase 114 m includes an indication that the service is offered as aprimary service of a bundled set of services along with an indicationthat the primary service is required to be performed at an outsidefacility may facilitate a mapping of the use of the outside facility toboth facility outpatient service price data and facility inpatientservice price data. In exemplary embodiments, for such services, aback-end administrator of server system 110 can make a determination ofwhich set of facility price data is more suitable to include in the setof pricing information of the information record. For example, such adetermination may be based upon whether the particular service is moretypically performed as a facility outpatient service or a facilityinpatient service. In alternative exemplary embodiments, for eachservice for which the respective information record within servicepricing information database 114 m includes an indication that theservice is offered as a primary service of a bundled set of servicesalong with an indication that the primary service is required to beperformed at an outside facility for which the use of the outsidefacility can be mapped to both facility outpatient service price dataand facility inpatient service price data, respective informationrecords can be maintained for the service as an outpatient facilityservice and for the service as an inpatient facility service withinservice pricing information database 114 m.

In this regard, anesthesia time is a continuous time from the start ofanesthesia to the end of an anesthesia service, and one-time unitcorresponds to a 15-minute interval, or fraction thereof, starting fromthe time the physician begins to prepare the patient for induction andending when the patient may safely be placed under post-operativesupervision and the physician is no longer in personal attendance. Theconversion factors are listed by the CMS according to locality. Thus,the conversion factor in the formula listed above will correspond to thelocality of the performing provider.

In exemplary embodiments, to access the functionality provided bypricing tool 137, a provider user, upon registering a provider accountwith server system 110 (for example, a physician, practice group, orhospital system account) to establish an account information recordwithin the corresponding profile database maintained within data store114 and logging into his or her physician account, the user may bedirected to a provider account page implemented by provider portal 130that provides a set of user interface controls that can be accessed bythe user to access functionality provided by procedure managementservice 133 to offer healthcare services for purchase by customer usersregistered with the system. As noted above, in the present exemplaryembodiment, the accessible functionality provided by proceduremanagement service 133 in this regard includes the functionalityprovided by pricing tool 137.

In particular, upon the provider user indicating an intention to utilizepricing tool in conjunction with offering healthcare services forpurchase via server system 110 (for example, by selecting a “ServicePricing Tool” tab within the provider account page implemented byprovider portal 130), the user will be directed to an interactiveservice pricing page with information that is generated based on theinformation maintained in the respective information record for theprovider within the corresponding profile database maintained withindata store 114 and the respective information records for healthcareservices that are maintained in service pricing information database 114m. Price setting tool 137 may be configured, for example, to implementthe interactive service pricing page to provide the provider user withdetailed pricing information and recommended rates for services that maybe offered by the provider for purchase via server system 110, as wellas various user interface controls accessible by the user to performadjustments to the recommended rates as desired.

FIG. 7A is a screen shot illustrating a first example of a graphicaluser interface provided by such a service pricing page 700 for a useraccessing provider portal 130 in association with a registered hospitalsystem account. In the example illustrated in FIG. 7A, the userinterface provided at service pricing page 700 includes a medicalspecialty drop-down menu 702, a locality adjustment section 704, arecommended rate adjustment section 706, a detailed pricing informationsection 708, and a set of selectable buttons 710 a (“Email Prices”), 710b (“Save Changes”), and 710 c (“Take Live”), the use of which will bedescribed in greater detail below. Drop-down menu 702 provides a list ofselectable medical specialties (for example, orthopedics, generalsurgery, cardiac imaging, etc.), and pricing tool is implemented to, inresponse to the user selecting a particular medical specialty usingdrop-down menu 702, configure the user interface options and populatethe information displayed within locality adjustment section 704,recommended rate adjustment section 706, and detailed pricinginformation section 708 in accordance with the selected medicalspecialty and further based on information maintained in the respectiveinformation record for the provider that is maintained within hospitalsystem profile database 114 d, information that is maintained in therespective information records for each service indicated as beingcommonly associated with the selected medical specialty within servicepricing information database 114 m, and information maintained withincost adjustment information database 114 n, which, as discussed above,can be accessed by pricing tool 137 via database services provided at afront end by database server 112.

For instance, in the example screen shot illustrated in FIG. 7A, theuser has selected “Radiology” from medical specialty drop-down menu 702,and pricing tool 137 has, in response to this selection, configured theuser interface options and populated the information displayed withinlocality adjustment section 704, recommended rate adjustment section706, and detailed pricing information section 708 in accordance with theselection of “Radiology” from drop-down menu 702. More specifically, asshown in FIG. 7A, locality adjustment section 704 has been configured toinclude a physician locality section and a facility section in responseto the selection of “Radiology” from drop-down menu 702. The physicianlocality section is provided for making pricing adjustments based on thelocality of a physician that is affiliated with the hospital system andwould be performing the radiology services being priced. The facilitysection is included within locality adjustment section 704 in responseto pricing tool 137 recognizing that the respective information recordsfor services indicated as being commonly associated with the selectedmedical specialty of radiology within service pricing informationdatabase 114 m include information records having an indication that theservice is a primary service of a bundled set of services that isrequired to be performed at an outside facility and is provided formaking pricing adjustments based on the facility that is affiliated withthe hospital system at which the radiology services being priced wouldbe performed.

In the present example, the physician locality section includes aphysician location field 704 a and a physician location rate field 704b, and the facility section includes a facility field 704 c and afacility rate field 704 d. The physician location field 704 a is forreceiving and displaying an entry specifying the location of a physicianthat would be performing the services indicated as being commonlyassociated with the selected medical specialty of radiology withinservice pricing information database 114 m, and the physician locationrate field 704 b is configured to provide a rate adjustment factor forthe pricing information included in detailed pricing information section708 for the services indicated as being commonly associated withradiology. In exemplary embodiments, pricing tool 137 can be configuredto derive an initial physician location entry based on the locationassociated with physician affiliation(s) included in hospital systemprofile database 114 d and include this derived physician location entryas a default value within physician location field 704 a. Physicianlocation rate field 704 b is provided for receiving and displaying ageographic adjustment rate for physician services that, by default, isderived based on information maintained in cost adjustment informationdatabase 114 n and provided by pricing tool 137 in correspondence withthe physician location entry that is currently specified withinphysician location field 704 a. More particularly, in exemplaryembodiments, pricing tool 137 can be configured to access the physicianrate cost adjustment data in cost adjustment information database 114 nthat corresponds to the physician location entry that is currentlyspecified within physician location field 704 a (for example, a standardrate adjustment factor determined for a designated locality area thatencompasses the specified physician location entry) and derive acorresponding geographic adjustment rate that is displayed as a defaultvalue within physician location rate field 704 b.

In the present example, pricing tool 137 is further configured to allowthe provider user accessing service pricing page 700 to proceed to entertext corresponding to a desired location of the physician that wouldperform the services associated with the selected medical specialtywithin physician location field 704 a. In this regard, pricing tool 137may be configured to require that the text entered by the user inphysician location field 704 a correspond to a particular locality areafor which corresponding physician rate adjustments are maintained incost adjustment information database 114 n.

The list of suggested physician locations provided by pricing tool 137can further include an option for the user to select a standard,national physician rate rather than a particular geographic location. Inresponse to a specification of a new physician location within physicianlocation field 704 a, pricing tool 137 can be configured to dynamicallyaccess the physician rate cost adjustment data in cost adjustmentinformation database 114 n that corresponds to the newly-specifiedphysician location entry that is currently specified within physicianlocation field 704 a and derive a corresponding geographic adjustmentrate that is displayed as the current value within physician locationrate field 704 b.

In exemplary embodiments, pricing tool 137 can be configured to derivean initial outside facility entry based on the facility affiliation(s)included the respective information record for the hospital systemaccount in hospital system profile database 114 d being used to accessthe pricing tool 137 functionality via provider portal 130 and includethis derived facility entry as a default value within facility field 704c. Facility rate field 704 d is provided for receiving and displaying anadjustment rate for facility services that, by default, is derived andprovided by pricing tool 137 in correspondence with the characteristicsof the facility that is currently specified as the entry within facilityfield 704 c.

In the present example, pricing tool 137 is further configured to allowthe provider user accessing service pricing page 700 to proceed to entertext corresponding to a name of a desired outside facility at which theservices associated with the selected medical specialty would beperformed within facility field 704 c. In this regard, pricing tool 137may be configured to require that the text entered by the user infacility field 704 c correspond to the name of a particular facilityspecified in the facility affiliations included the respectiveinformation record for the hospital system account in hospital systemprofile database 114 d being used to access the pricing tool 137functionality via provider portal 130.

With continued reference to the example screen shot illustrated in FIG.7A, pricing tool 137 has, in response to the user selection “Radiology”from medical specialty drop-down menu 702, configured the user interfaceoptions and populated the information displayed within rate adjustmentsection 706. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 7A, rate adjustmentsection 706 has been configured to include a physician rate adjustmentfield 706 a and a facility rate adjustment field 706 b in response tothe selection of “Radiology” from drop-down menu 702. Physician rateadjustment field 706 a is provided for making a general pricingadjustment to the pricing information included in detailed pricinginformation section 708 for physician fees for the services indicated asbeing commonly associated with radiology as desired by the provider userthat may be based on any budgetary considerations specific to theprovider and/or physician.

With continued reference to the example screen shot illustrated in FIG.7A, as noted above, pricing tool 137 has, in response to the userselection “Radiology” from medical specialty drop-down menu 702,configured the user interface options and populated the informationdisplayed within detailed pricing information section 708. In general,as shown in FIG. 7A, detailed pricing information section 708 isgenerated by pricing tool 137 as a table with various interactive userinterface controls that includes a procedure column 711, a facilityprice column 712, a physician price column 713, an additional fee column714, and a total amount column 715.

The information in procedure column 711 is generated by pricing tool 137to include a row entry for each procedure category listed in therespective information records for services that are maintained inservice pricing information database 114 m and include an indicationthat the service is commonly associated with the medical specialtyselected via drop-down menu 702, which is “Radiology” for the examplescreen shot depicted in FIG. 7A. For instance, the procedure categorieslisted in procedure column 711 in the present example include “BoneDensity DXA Extremity” radiology procedures, “Bone Density DXA Scan”radiology procedures, and “Videofluoroscopic Swallowing Study” radiologyprocedures. As further illustrated in FIG. 7A for the example of the“Bone Density DXA Extremity” radiology procedures listing in inprocedure column 711, detailed pricing information section 708 isimplemented to include user interface elements that are accessible bythe user.

In the present example, the expanded information for the “Bone DensityDXA Extremity” radiology procedures listing includes row entries for a“Dxa bone density/peripheral” service and a “Fracture assessment viadxa” service. As further illustrated in FIG. 7A, the expandedinformation for a particular procedure category further includes, foreach service categorized as a sub-procedure of the procedure category, amedical code number used to identify the service (for example, a CPTcode), a base facility rate, a base physician rate, an adjusted facilityrate, and an adjusted physician rate. The base physician rate for eachservice listed in the expanded display is obtained by pricing tool 137from standard national physician rate derived for the service and theadjusted physician rate for each service listed in the expanded displayis calculated by pricing tool 137 for display within detailed pricinginformation section 708 by multiplying the corresponding base physicianrate by both the current value that is specified in physician locationrate field 704 b of locality adjustment section 704 and the currentpercentage value that is specified in physician rate adjustment field706 a of recommended rate adjustment section 706.

In the present example, as further illustrated in FIG. 7A, the expandedinformation for a particular procedure category further includes aphysician price field 711 a that specifies a price that will be set bythe provider user for each of the services that have been categorizedunder the expanded procedure category and a facility price field 711 bthat specifies a price that will be applied by the provider user for theuse of an outside facility for each of the services that have beencategorized under the expanded procedure category.

In exemplary embodiments, pricing tool 137 can be configured to deriveand include initial, default price values within physician price field711 a and physician price field 711 a. As further indicated in theexample screen shot illustrated in FIG. 7A, the row entry for aparticular procedure category will include a pricing value underphysician price column 713 that corresponds to the pricing value that isspecified within physician price field 711 a in the expanded display forthe procedure category, and, likewise, the row entry for a particularprocedure category will include a pricing value under facility pricecolumn 712 that corresponds to the pricing value that is specifiedwithin facility price field 711 b in the expanded display for theprocedure category. In this regard, pricing tool 137 can be configuredto dynamically update the pricing values provided under physician pricecolumn 713 and facility price column 712 in response to changes to theprice values within physician price field 711 a and facility price field711 b respectively. As further illustrated in FIG. 7A, the row entry fora particular procedure category can include a pricing value under totalamount column 715 that is provided as a sum of the price values listedunder facility price column 712, physician price column 713, and, ifincluded, additional fee column 714 in the row entry for a particularprocedure category. This represents the actual price at which eachservice listed in the expanded display for a procedure category would beoffered for purchase via marketplace system 100 as a bundled set ofservices from the provider user accessing service pricing page 700 viaprovider portal 130.

As noted above and further illustrated in FIG. 7A, the user interfaceprovided at service pricing page 700 in the present example alsoincludes a set of accessible user interface controls 710 a (“EmailPrices”), 710 b (“Save Changes”), and 710 c (“Take Live”). For purposesof the present example, these user interface controls are providedwithin service pricing page 700 as selectable buttons. In the presentexemplary embodiment, pricing tool 137 can be configured to, in responseto a provider user selecting “Save Changes” button 710 b, generate aninformation record that includes indications of all of the information.

In the present exemplary embodiment, pricing tool 137 can be configuredto, in response to a provider user selecting “Email Prices” button 710a, provide user interface controls for allowing the user to specify anemail address and send an electronic document that includes indicationsof the pricing information.

Finally, with reference to the present example, pricing tool 137 can beconfigured to, in response to a provider user selecting “Take Live”button 710 c, automatically initiate, on behalf of the provider user, aservice offering with procedure management service 133 to offer each ofthe services currently included within detailed pricing informationsection 708 of service pricing page 700 for the particular medicalspecialty presented selected by the user from drop-down menu 702 forpurchase via server system 110. In this manner, pricing tool 137 canprovide a mechanism for a provider to offer a large number of servicesfor purchase via marketplace system 100 by customer users registeredwith the system without having to perform full set of operationsdescribed above for accessing functionality provided by proceduremanagement service 133 to offer each of the services individually.

FIG. 7B is a screen shot illustrating a second example of a graphicaluser interface provided by service pricing page 700 for a user accessingprovider portal 130 in association with a registered hospital systemaccount. In the example illustrated in FIG. 7B, the user has selected“General Surgery” from medical specialty drop-down menu 702, and pricingtool 137 has, in response to this selection, configured the userinterface options and populated the information displayed withinlocality adjustment section 704, rate adjustment section 706, anddetailed pricing information section 708 in accordance with theselection of “General Surgery” from drop-down menu 702. Morespecifically, as shown in FIG. 7B, locality adjustment section 704 hasbeen configured to include, in addition to the physician localitysection and the facility section described above with reference to theexample illustrated in FIG. 7C, an anesthesia locality section inresponse to the selection of “General Surgery” from drop-down menu 702.The anesthesia locality section is included within locality adjustmentsection 704 in response to pricing tool 137 recognizing that therespective information records for services.

In the present example, the anesthesia locality section includes ananesthesia location field 704 e and an anesthesia location rate field704 f. The anesthesia location field 704 e is for receiving anddisplaying an entry specifying the location at which the servicesindicated as being commonly associated with the selected medicalspecialty of general surgery within service pricing information database114 m would be performed, and the anesthesia location rate field 704 fis configured to provide a rate adjustment factor for the pricinginformation included in detailed pricing information section 708 for theservices indicated as being commonly associated with radiology.

Anesthesia location rate field 704 f is provided for receiving anddisplaying a geographic adjustment rate for physician services that, bydefault, is derived and provided by pricing tool 137 in correspondencewith the anesthesia location entry that is currently specified withinanesthesia location field 704 e. More particularly, in exemplaryembodiments, pricing tool 137 can be configured to access theinformation pertaining to anesthesia rate adjustments in service pricinginformation database 114 n corresponding to the anesthesia locationentry that is currently specified within anesthesia location field 704 eand derive a corresponding geographic adjustment rate that is displayedas a default value within anesthesia location rate field 704 e. Thecorresponding geographic adjustment rate can be derived, for example,based on a ratio of the CMS anesthesia conversion factor to a standard,national anesthesia conversion factor.

Specification of a new location within anesthesia location field 704 e,pricing tool 137 can be configured to dynamically access the informationpertaining to physician rate adjustments in geographic factors database114 n corresponding to the newly specified physician location entrywithin anesthesia location field 704 e and derive a correspondinggeographic adjustment rate that is displayed as the current value withinanesthesia location rate field 704 f. In the present example, pricingtool 137 is also configured to allow the provider user to directlyaccess anesthesia location rate field 704 f and specify a desired valuefor the geographic adjustment rate that will override the particulargeographic adjustment rate that is derived by pricing tool 137 based onthe location entry within anesthesia location field 704 e and displayedas the current value within anesthesia location rate field 704 f. Theeffect of such an entry being submitted within anesthesia rate field 704f will be described below with reference to detailed pricing informationsection 708.

With continued reference to the example screen shot illustrated in FIG.7B, as noted above, pricing tool 137 has, in response to the userselection “General Surgery” from medical specialty drop-down menu 702,configured the user interface options and populated the informationdisplayed within rate adjustment section 706.

With continued reference to the example screen shot illustrated in FIG.7B, as noted above, pricing tool 137 has, in response to the userselection “General Surgery” from medical specialty drop-down menu 702,configured the user interface options and populated the informationdisplayed within detailed pricing information section 708. In general,as shown in FIG. 7B, detailed pricing information section 708 isgenerated by pricing tool 137 as a table with various interactive userinterface controls that includes, in addition to procedure column 711,facility price column 712, physician price column 713, additional feecolumn 714, and total amount column 715, an anesthesia price column 716.As illustrated in FIG. 7B, the expanded information for a particularprocedure category further includes, for each service categorized as asub-procedure of the procedure category, in addition to a medical codenumber used to identify the service, a base facility rate, a basephysician rate, an adjusted facility rate, and an adjusted physicianrate as described above with reference to FIG. 7A, a base anesthesiarate and an adjusted anesthesia rate.

In the present example, as further illustrated in FIG. 7B, the expandedinformation for a particular procedure category further includes, inaddition to physician price field 711 a and facility price field 711 b,an anesthesia price field 711 c that specifies a price that will beapplied by the provider user for each anesthesia service performed inassociation with the services that have been categorized under theexpanded procedure category.

For example, pricing tool 137 can be configured to enable the userselect between using the average of the corresponding adjustedanesthesia rates for all services listed in the expanded display for aprocedure category for the price values within anesthesia price field711 c or the highest of the corresponding adjusted anesthesia rates forall services listed in the expanded display for a procedure category forthe price values within anesthesia price field 711 c. In exemplaryembodiments, pricing tool 137 can be further configured to allow theprovider user accessing service pricing page 700 to access anesthesiaprice field 711 c to input a particular price value within this field.

As further indicated in the example screen shot illustrated in FIG. 7B,the row entry for a particular procedure category will include a pricingvalue under anesthesia price column 716 that corresponds to the pricingvalue that is specified within anesthesia price field 711 c in theexpanded display for the procedure category. In this regard, pricingtool 137 can be configured to dynamically update the pricing valueprovided under anesthesia price column 716 in response to changes to theprice value within anesthesia price field 711 c. As discussed above, inexemplary configurations of pricing tool 137, such changes to the pricevalue within anesthesia price field 711 c in the expanded display for aparticular procedure category may occur in response to changes to any ofthe current value that is specified in anesthesia location rate field704 f of locality adjustment section 704, the current percentage valuethat is specified in anesthesia rate adjustment field 706 c ofrecommended rate adjustment section 706, changes in the particularmethod employed by pricing tool 137 to derive and set the price valuewithin anesthesia price field 711 c, and direct entries of a particularprice value by a provider user within anesthesia price field 711 c.

As further illustrated in FIG. 7B, the row entry for a particularprocedure category can include a pricing value under total amount column715 that is provided as a sum of the price values listed under facilityprice column 712, physician price column 713, anesthesia price column716, and, if included, additional fee column 714 in the row entry for aparticular procedure category. This represents the actual price at whicheach service listed in the expanded display for a procedure categorywould be offered for purchase via marketplace system 100 as a bundledset of services from the provider user accessing service pricing page700 via provider portal 130. In exemplary embodiments, pricing tool 137can be further configured to provide an option via user interfacecontrols implemented within service pricing page 700 for a provider userthat is accessing the service pricing page 700 and has selected amedical specialty from drop-down menu 702 for which pricing tool 137recognizes that the respective information records for servicesindicated as being commonly associated with the selected medicalspecialty within service pricing information database 114 m includeinformation records having an indication that the service is a primaryservice of a bundled set of services that a secondary service associatedwith the primary service in the bundled set is an anesthesia procedureto not include information and options pertaining to the associatedanesthesia procedures and anesthesia pricing information within theservice pricing page for the selected medical specialty.

FIG. 7C is a screen shot illustrating a third example of a graphicaluser interface provided by service pricing page 700 for a user accessingprovider portal 130 in association with a registered hospital systemaccount. In the example illustrated in FIG. 7C, the user has selected“GI” (gastroenterology) from medical specialty drop-down menu 702, andpricing tool 137 has, in response to this selection, configured the userinterface options and populated the information displayed withinlocality adjustment section 704, rate adjustment section 706, anddetailed pricing information section 708 in accordance with theselection of “GI” from drop-down menu 702.

In general, as shown in FIG. 7C, detailed pricing information section708 is generated by pricing tool 137 as a table with various interactiveuser interface controls that includes, in addition to procedure column711, facility price column 712, physician price column 713, additionalfee column 714, and total amount column 715, a pathology price column717.

As illustrated in FIG. 7C, the expanded information for a particularprocedure category further includes, for each service categorized as asub-procedure of the procedure category, in addition to a medical codenumber used to identify the service, a base facility rate, a basephysician rate, an adjusted facility rate, and an adjusted physicianrate as described above with reference to FIG. 7A, a base pathologyrate. The base pathology rate for each service listed in the expandeddisplay is obtained by pricing tool 137 from the pathology rate for theservice that is stored within the respective information recordmaintained for the service within service pricing information database114 m for display within detailed pricing information section 708.

In the present example, as further illustrated in FIG. 7C, the expandedinformation for a particular procedure category further includes, inaddition to physician price field 711 a and facility price field 711 b,a pathology price field 711 d that specifies a price that will beapplied by the provider user for each pathology service performed inassociation with the services that have been categorized under theexpanded procedure category. In exemplary embodiments, pricing tool 137can be configured to derive and include an initial, default price valuewithin pathology price field 711 d. For example, pricing tool 137 canderive and set the default price value within pathology price field 711d as the average of the base pathology rates for all services listed inthe expanded display for a procedure category. In exemplary embodiments,pricing tool 137 can be further configured to allow the provider useraccessing service pricing page 700 to access pathology price field 711 dto input a particular price value within this field.

As further indicated in the example screen shot illustrated in FIG. 7C,the row entry for a particular procedure category will include a pricingvalue under pathology price column 717 that corresponds to the pricingvalue that is specified within pathology price field 711 d in theexpanded display for the procedure category. In this regard, pricingtool 137 can be configured to dynamically update the pricing valueprovided under pathology price column 717 in response to changes to theprice value within pathology price field 711 d. As further illustratedin FIG. 7B, the row entry for a particular procedure category caninclude a pricing value under total amount column 715 that is providedas a sum of the price values listed under facility price column 712,physician price column 713, pathology price column 717, and, ifincluded, additional fee column 714 and anesthesia price column 716 inthe row entry for a particular procedure category. This represents theactual price at which each service listed in the expanded display for aprocedure category would be offered for purchase as a bundled set ofservices via marketplace system 100 from the provider user accessingservice pricing page 700 via provider portal 130.

In exemplary embodiments, the functionality that is provided withinprovider portal 130 for users of hospital system accounts can furtherinclude a set of user interface controls implemented by service sellingservice 135 that can be accessed by a user of a hospital system accountto sell prepaid purchases of services to a customer in-person byoperating a client system located at, for example, a medical clinicbeing visited by the customer to access application server 116. In thisregard, service selling service 135 may provide functionality allowing auser of a hospital system account to sell, in addition to services thatare offered for purchase by the hospital within server system 100,services that are constructed by a user of a hospital system account,including bundled sets of services.

In exemplary embodiments, the user interface implemented by accountmanagement service 131 may be further configured to provide userinterface controls for requesting authorization for payment of apredetermined fee to gain access to the ability to offer healthcareproducts for purchase within marketplace system 100. Such a fee may be,for example, a one-time charge or a periodic charge (such as a monthly,biannual, or annual fee).

Upon the user indicating an intention to offer a healthcare product forpurchase (for example, by selecting a “Offer Service” tab within thepharmacy account page implemented by provider portal 130), the user willbe able to initiate a product offering with product management service134 to offer a healthcare product for purchase via server system 110.

Upon the user indicating an intention within the pharmacy account pageimplemented by provider portal 130 to access various account managementfunctions, the pharmacy administrator can access various user interfaceelements provided by account management service 131 to, for example,manage pharmacy and payment or compensation information, manageinformation pertaining to products offered for purchase by the pharmacy,and view a history of transactions performed for products offered forpurchase by the pharmacy within server system 110.

In exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, because certain healthcareinformation may be considered highly confidential, marketplace system100 can be implemented to provide for a high-level of security forinformation transferred between client applications executing on clientsystems 142 and application server 116. For illustration, wheneverapplicable, marketplace system 100 (for example, for operations andfunctionalities) may be implemented to comply with requirements underthe Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Forexample, if certain type of information should not be accessible to aspecific party (for example, a prescription product manufacturer orservice provider) according to HIPAA requirements or otherconfidentiality concerns, system 100 can implement information-controlor information-protection measures that ensure the specific party cannotaccess that type of information. As another example, to protect patientprivacy, information transmitted over a computer or communicationnetwork, such as information transmitted between application server 116and any client system 140 and electronic messages transmitted by serversystem 110, can be encrypted. In exemplary embodiments, system 100 canbe HIPAA-validated to ensure privacy and comply with all requirements.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an insurance policy stored in theinsurance database (114 o, shown in FIG. 2 ) executed by the applicationserver (116, shown in FIG. 2 ). The insurance database is programmed toprovide an optimized bundled price 802 for healthcare services. Forexemplary purposes, the system maximizes collections at each phase inthe user's care cycle. For various phases there is an option for payingthe payment 804. The patient is referred or scheduled for a procedure,where the patient may receive a push notification to pay prospectively.Alternatively, the patient checks-in at a provider's location and thepatient pays at the point of service such as by cash, card, digitalwallet, etc. Alternatively, the patient is made to pay after servicesare provided and/or at discharge wherein, the patient receives a pushnotification to pay retrospectively.

Further, each of the patient's information is monitored such as but notlimited to a doctor's order/schedule (for example, CHC Redox),propensity to pay data (CHC-Vendor), benefit status (CHC-ribbon health)and CareCredit pre-approval. Based on the patient information, adoctor's order is matched. Further, the price is set based on thepatient's capacity and/or willingness to pay for the service and/orproduct. Further, each payment is monitored to check if a patient ispaying out-of-pocket. The system compares the bundled price to theremaining patient deductible to determine the patient's capacity to payfor the services and/or product. Furthermore, patients are allowed topay either in full or through CareCredit.

The system is configured to pay the optimal price in full every time tothe hospital/physician/pharmacy and any associated service provider. Theprocedure is transparent and acceptable to both patients and theprovider. The service providers collect the maximum data on the patientswho are willing to pay. Further, the hospital may leave revenue on thetable by charging less than what patients are willing to pay.

The application server (116, shown in FIG. 2 ) processes the data storedin the insurance database 114 o and allows the user to access theinsurance information via an insurance management service (14, shown inFIG. 2 ). The hospital sends an electronic claim to the system aftercare is delivered to the patient. The system then distributes paymentand sends an electronic remittance file based on the information storedin the insurance database 114 o. The system passes the electronic claimto the insurance company 806 to update the patient's accumulator (notfor reimbursement). The insurance 806 then notifies the system ofaccumulator status. The system then sends an update to the patients.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a virtual payment system manager170 communicating with a client system in a healthcare marketplacesystem in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. As noted above, exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented to provide a virtual payment system forfacilitating and accounting for the exchange of payment for services andproducts purchased by (or otherwise purchased on behalf of) patients andoffered by healthcare providers via the creation, transfer, andredemption of virtual funds within a central server system 110.

In some exemplary embodiments, the virtual payment system manager 170 isconfigured to facilitate the tracking and management of promotionalcredits that may be offered by the providers of a healthcare marketplacesystem 100 to registered users of the server system 110 for takingcertain actions within the system in association with their registeredaccounts.

For example, the providers of a marketplace system 100 may offer apromotion to potential customer users in which each user, uponcompleting registration of a respective customer account with serversystem 110, will receive a credit of a specified amount of funds (forinstance, a credit of $25) that the customer user may use to purchaseservices and/or products offered within marketplace system 100 byprovider users that are registered with server system 110.

In one embodiment, the virtual payment system manager 170 is configuredto, access the database server 112 to create the respective accountinformation record for the virtual money account for the customer withinthe virtual money account database 114 o, and access database server 112to create a new virtual fund corresponding to a specified amount for apromotional credit within the database of virtual fund objects includedin the respective account information record.

In this regard, the virtual payment system manager 170 generates aunique identifier for the new virtual fund object being created anddefines the attributes of the object to include an indication of thevalue of the corresponding virtual funds, the unique identifiergenerated for the object, an indication that the original funding sourceis a credit that was conveyed by the providers of marketplace system100, a creation timestamp for the object, an indication that thecorresponding virtual funds for the object are not presently allocatedto use as payment for an offered service or product purchased within themarketplace system, and, optionally, an indication of an expiration datefor the promotional credit by which the customer user must use thecredited funds to purchase the services and/or products offered withinmarketplace system 100.

In such an example, the virtual payment system manager 170 is configuredto further access database server 112 to also create a corresponding newvirtual fund object for the promotional credit within the container ofvirtual fund objects included in the respective account informationrecord for a respective virtual money account that is being maintainedwithin virtual money account database 114 o for an entity that providesthe marketplace system (which may have already been established, forexample, by a backend administrator of server system 110). Morespecifically, virtual payment system manager 170 generates a uniqueidentifier for the new virtual fund object being created and define theattributes of the object to include an indication of the value of thecorresponding virtual funds as a negative value, the unique identifiergenerated for the object, an indication that the original funding sourceis a corresponding amount of real currency held within an externalfinancial account maintained by the providers of marketplace system 100(and thereby owed to the virtual payment system by the marketplacesystem providers), and a creation timestamp for the object.

In one embodiment the virtual payment system manager 170 is alsoconfigured to, upon creating the corresponding virtual fund objects forthe promotional credit within the respective account information recordsfor the virtual money accounts for the customer user and the entity thatprovides the marketplace system within virtual money account database114 o, updates the total balance values and available balance valuesincluded in the sets of general information within the respectiveaccount information records for the respective virtual money accountsappropriately to reflect the newly-created virtual fund objects.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9 , the particular components thatare utilized for providing the virtual payment system are integratedwithin system 100 in conjunction with the components of the system asdescribed above and herein below with reference to the exemplaryembodiments illustrated FIGS. 1 and 2 . In particular, as depicted inFIG. 9 , application server 116 is further implemented to includevirtual payment system manager 170. As also depicted in FIG. 9 , datastore 114 further comprises virtual money account database 114 p, whichis maintained by database server 112, is accessed by application server116.

In the present exemplary embodiment, virtual payment system manager 170is shown in FIG. 9 as including a virtual account management module 171,a transaction tracking module 172, a communication module 173, a virtualfund creation and disbursement module 174, a virtual payment processingmodule 175, and an adjustment processing module 176. In general, thevarious modules implemented within virtual payment system manager 170 inthe present exemplary embodiments are configured to interact with oneanother, customer portal 120, provider portal 130, and data store 114via database server 112 to perform the various operations described inthe examples provided above pertaining to exemplary embodiments in whicha virtual payment system is implemented within server system 110.

The virtual account management module 171 is configured to accessvirtual money account database 114 p to create respective accountinformation records for respective virtual money accounts ofparticipants to transactions conducted within marketplace system 100.The virtual account management module 171 retrieves, maintains, performsmodifications to respective information account records as necessary inresponse to participants that are logged-in to server system 110accessing the account management functions provided by accountmanagement service 122 or account management service 131 to manage andview information pertaining to the respective virtual money accounts forthe participants within the virtual payment system.

Transaction tracking module 172 can, for example, be configured todynamically perform updates to the accounting details pertaining totransactions conducted within the virtual payment system. The module 172dynamically calculates and performs updates to the balance values thatare included within the general information in the respective accountinformation records for the respective virtual money accounts inresponse to transactions conducted within the virtual payment system.

Further, module 172 dynamically performs processing for handling virtualfund objects that have been created within the virtual money accountbased on promotional credits that have expired in response to suchexpirations occurring, and dynamically perform processing for reversingpayment processing operations performed within the virtual paymentsystem for purchases of offered services and products that have not beenredeemed within expiration periods specified for such purchases inresponse to the end of such expiration periods being reached

Communication module 173 can, for example, be configured to generatenotifications and reports with respect to virtual money accounts managedand transactions conducted within the virtual payment system, transmitgenerated notifications and reports to corresponding components ofcustomer portal 120 and provider portal 130, receive notifications andinformation from corresponding components of customer portal 120 andprovider portal 130, and process such received notifications andinformation.

Virtual fund creation and disbursement module 174 can, for example, beconfigured to implement functionality for creating or instantiating newvirtual fund objects within respective account information records forvirtual money accounts as needed for transactions conducted within thevirtual payment system, processing disbursal requests within the virtualpayment system (including functionality for deleting virtual fundobjects), and performing automatic periodic disbursals for virtual moneyaccounts within the virtual payment system.

Virtual payment processing module 175 can, for example, be configured toimplement functionality for performing operations for facilitatingpayment processing within the virtual payment system for purchases ofoffered services and products by customers users registered with serversystem 110, as well as to perform corresponding updates to theattributes defining the virtual fund objects within the respectiveaccount information records in response to performing such operationsfor facilitating payment processing within the virtual payment system.Adjustment processing module 176 can, for example, be configured toimplement functionality for performing operations for processingcancellation requests, refund requests, and other modifications topurchases of offered services and products for which payment processingis handled within the virtual payment system, as well as to performcorresponding updates to the attributes defining the virtual fundobjects within the respective account information records in response toperforming such operations for processing cancellation requests, refundrequests, and other modifications to purchases within the virtualpayment system.

In exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, because certain healthcareinformation may be considered highly confidential, marketplace system100 can be implemented to provide for a high-level of security forinformation transferred between client applications executing on clientsystems 142 and application server 116. For illustration, wheneverapplicable, marketplace system 100 (for example, for operations andfunctionalities) may be implemented to comply with requirements underthe Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Asanother example, to protect patient privacy, information transmittedover a computer or communication network, such as informationtransmitted between application server 116 and any client system 140 andelectronic messages transmitted by server system 110, can be encrypted.In exemplary embodiments, system 100 can be HIPAA-validated to ensureprivacy and comply with all requirements.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of the application server showing adeductible checker, shopping cart and drug discount card in accordancewith another embodiment of the present invention. The application server116 may further include a deductible checker 1002 to look up thepatient's deductible, a shopping cart 1004 for providing details ofpricing to the user, and a drug discount card 1006 for the user forsubscription of healthcare services.

The deductible checker 1002 allows patient's/user's to look up theirdeductible and to let the user know whether the healthcare serviceoffered is at better and/or competitive prices. The shopping cart 1004is automatically communicated to the registered users with the pricingdetails of the healthcare services with which they intend to proceed.The shopping cart 1004 is automatically communicated such as but notlimited to email, SMS, flashing on the graphical user interface, and anyother similar communication networks etc. The shopping cart 1004automatically checks for any deductibles, insurance and accordinglygenerates the pricing for the user.

In another embodiment, the shopping cart 1004 is verified by an analystto confirm the pricing. Thus, the shopping cart is sent to the analystsystem and then to the user. This allows the user to pre-pay for thehealthcare services. Further, the shopping cart 1004 is generated withthe right bundled prices (e.g. accounting for discounts when certainprocedures are purchased together etc.). The drug discount card 1006 isprovided to the users who subscribe to the healthcare services.

FIG. 11 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design. The methoddepicted in FIG. 11 is given from the perspective of an exemplarypatient lifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning engine(SCPE) implemented via processor-executable program instructionsexecuting on the SCPE processor 604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In variousembodiments, the processor 604 implementing the process 1100 may beconfigured in an exemplary system 100 as described herein with referenceto any of FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . For example, the depicted process mayexecute as processor executable program instructions on processor 604configured in the application server 116, depicted in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9. In various embodiments, the method depicted in FIG. 11 may also beunderstood as from the perspective of processor-executable programinstructions executing on a mobile device operably coupled with thenetwork 150, depicted at least in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . In the illustratedembodiment, the SCPE executes as program instructions on the processor604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In some embodiments, the SCPE may execute as acloud service communicatively and operatively coupled with systemservices, hardware resources, or software elements local to and/orexternal to the SCPE processor 604.

The depicted method 1100 begins at step 1105 with the processor 604receiving an electronic message comprising a patient medical dataupdate. The electronic message may include an EHR (Electronic HealthRecord). The EHR may include updated patient medical data. The patientmedical data may be updated relative to historical patient medical data.The processor 604 may access and store the patient medical data usingthe customer profile database 114 a, depicted in FIG. 2 .

Then, the method continues at step 1110 with the processor 604determining if a patient lifecycle event is detected based on theupdated patient medical data. The processor 604 executes the process1200, depicted by FIG. 12 and described herein, to determine if apatient lifecycle event is detected. The processor 604 may determine ifa patient lifecycle event is detected based on accessing and storingpatient, practice, or condition data using, for example, any of customerprofile database 114 a, practice group profile database 114 c, orcondition information database 114 f, depicted in FIG. 2 .

Then, the method continues at step 1115 with the processor 604performing a test to determine if a patient lifecycle event is detected,based on the execution of process 1200 by the processor 604 at step1110. Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1115 that apatient lifecycle event has not been detected, the method continues atstep 1105 with the processor 604 receiving an electronic messagecomprising a patient medical data update.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1115 that a patientlifecycle event has been detected, the method continues at step 1120with the processor 604 executing the process 1300, depicted by FIG. 13and described herein, to determine a medical service bundle to beoffered. The processor 604 may determine the medical service bundlebased on accessing and storing medical service data using any ofcustomer profile database 114 a, physician profile database 114 b,practice group profile database 114 c, condition information database114 f, or available service database 114 g, depicted in FIG. 2 .

Then, the method continues at step 1125 with the processor 604 executingthe process 1400, depicted by FIG. 14 and described herein, to offer themedical service bundle for selection and prepayment. For example, theprocessor 604 may offer the medical service bundle for selection andpayment through the customer portal 120 (depicted by FIG. 2 ), usingtechniques similar to those described herein with reference to theaccount management service 122 and purchasing service 126 (both depictedby FIG. 2 ).

Then, the method continues at step 1130 with the processor 604performing a test to determine if payment for the medical service bundlehas been received. Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step1130 payment has not been received, the method continues at step 1105with the processor 604 receiving an electronic message comprising apatient medical data update.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1130 payment wasreceived, the method continues at step 1135 with the processor 604scheduling the paid services. In various embodiments, the method mayrepeat. In some designs, the method may end.

FIG. 12 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design. The methoddepicted in FIG. 12 is given from the perspective of an exemplarypatient lifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning engine(SCPE) implemented via processor-executable program instructionsexecuting on the SCPE processor 604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In variousembodiments, the processor 604 implementing the process 1200 may beconfigured in an exemplary system 100 as described herein with referenceto any of FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . In various embodiments, the methoddepicted in FIG. 12 may also be understood as from the perspective ofprocessor-executable program instructions executing on a mobile deviceoperably coupled with the network 150, depicted at least in FIGS. 1, 6,and 9 . For example, the depicted process may execute as processorexecutable program instructions on processor 604 configured in theapplication server 116, depicted in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . In theillustrated embodiment, the SCPE executes as program instructions on theprocessor 604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In some embodiments, the SCPE mayexecute as a cloud service communicatively and operatively coupled withsystem services, hardware resources, or software elements local toand/or external to the SCPE processor 604. The depicted method 1200begins at step 1205 with the processor 604 performing a test todetermine if the patient is a new patient. The processor 604 mayimplement the test to determine if the patient is a new patient based onpatient medical data encoded by an EHR.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1205 the patient is anew patient, the method continues at step 1245 with the processor 604indicating to the invoking process that a patient lifecycle eventoccurred.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1205 the patient isnot a new patient, the method continues at step 1210 with the processor604 determining the patient's historical patient lifecycle state basedon patient medical data. The historical patient lifecycle state may bethe patient's lifecycle state previous to the current invocation ofprocess 1200. The historical patient lifecycle state may beadministratively assigned. The historical patient lifecycle state may beprogrammatically determined by the processor 604 as a function ofpatient medical data encoded by an EHR. The processor 604 may determinethe historical patient lifecycle state based on, for example, patientmedical data encoded by a previously processed EHR, administrativelyconfigured patient medical data, or an administratively configuredlifecycle state. In illustrative examples, the EHR may encode patientphysiological data such as, for example, a laboratory test reportindicating the concentration of a substance in the patient's body, or atest result indicating a measured patient physiological parameter suchas blood pressure, heart rate, weight, or height. The processor 604 mayprogrammatically determine the historical patient lifecycle state basedon, for example, operations such as comparing, or correlating, patientmedical data encoded by an EHR with one or more range of similar data todetermine the patient lifecycle state. In an illustrative example, theprocessor 604 may determine the patient lifecycle state to be newpatient, well patient, acute care patient, chronic care patient, orrecovering patient. Other patient lifecycle states may be determined bythe processor 604 based on programmatically analyzing patient medicaldata such as laboratory results and measurements to determinecorrespondence with standardized or administratively determined medicaldata ranges. For example, at step 1210 the processor 604 may determine apatient with a blood pressure in a predetermined range is an acute carepatient based on patient medical data encoded by an EHR.

Then, the method continues at step 1215 with the processor 604determining the current patient lifecycle state based on updated patientmedical data. The processor 604 may programmatically determine thecurrent patient lifecycle state based on updated patient medical dataencoded by an EHR. The EHR encoding updated patient medical data may beprovided as input to the system as a result of a patient's examinationby a medical professional. The EHR encoding updated patient medical datamay be provided as input to the system as a result of a measurement by adoctor during a patient visit. The EHR encoding updated patient medicaldata may be provided as input to the system as a result of a measurementremotely performed by a patient in a care context such as telemedicine,or self-care by the patient in the patient's home. The operationsperformed by the processor 604 to determine the current patientlifecycle state at step 1215 are in line with the operations performedby the processor 604 at step 1210 to determine the historical patientlifecycle state. In any case, the processor 604 at step 1215 determinesthe current patient lifecycle state based on evaluating patient medicaldata that has been updated. In this example, the patient medical datahas been updated relative to the patient medical data analyzed by theprocessor 604 at step 1210 to determine the historical patient lifecyclestate.

Then, the method continues at step 1220 with the processor 604 comparingthe historical patient lifecycle state determined by the processor 604at step 1210 with the current patient lifecycle state determined by theprocessor 604 at step 1215, to determine if a patient lifecycle eventoccurred based on the comparison. In an illustrative example, theprocessor 604 may compare the historical and current lifecycle statesbased on comparing archived patient medical data with updated patientmedical data.

Then, the method continues at step 1225 with the processor 604performing a test to determine if the patient condition changed. Theprocessor 604 may determine if the patient condition changed based oncomparing archived patient medical data, such as, for example, aprevious blood pressure measurement or laboratory test result, withpatient medical data updated by a more recent measurement or result. Forexample, the processor 604 may determine patient condition changed if amore recent test result or measurement is in a different range than aprevious test result or measurement. Upon a determination at step 1225by the processor 604 patient condition changed, the method continues atstep 1245 with the processor 604 indicating to the invoking process thata patient lifecycle event occurred.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1225 the patientcondition did not change, the method continues at step 1230 with theprocessor 604 performing a test to determine if the patient statuschanged. The processor 604 may determine if patient status changed basedon administratively configured or programmatically determined patientstatus. The processor 604 may determine if patient status changed basedon comparing archived patient data with updated patient data. Thepatient data used by the processor 604 to determine patient status maybe medical, billing, payment, insurance, or other data. In anillustrative example, patient status may be new patient, active patient,inactive patient, former patient, referral patient, or referred patient.For example, the processor 604 may determine patient status changed fromactive to inactive if the patient has not kept an appointment for atleast a predetermined time period. The processor 604 may determine thepatient is a new patient if patient records were not previouslyaccessible to the system. A referral patient may have been referred fromanother medical practice, and in view of this, patient care of such apatient may benefit from customized consideration, in line with what maybe known by one of skill in the art. A referred patient may havespecific goals resulting in the patient's referral to another medicalpractice, or to a specialist, for example. In an illustrative example,the referred patient may benefit from optional services offered throughthe specialist's practice. In any case, upon a determination by theprocessor 604 at step 1230 the patient status changed, the methodcontinues at step 1245 with the processor 604 indicating to the invokingprocess that a patient lifecycle event occurred.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1230 the patientstatus did not change, the method continues at step 1235 with theprocessor 604 performing a test to determine if another patientlifecycle event occurred. The operations performed by the processor 604at step 1235 to determine if another patient lifecycle event hasoccurred may include comparing archived patient data with updatedpatient data encoded by an EHR received with a notification oradministratively configured in the system. In any case the processor 604may determine a patient lifecycle event other than a change in patientcondition or status has occurred, based on comparing the archived andupdated patient data, to determine if a change has occurred based on thecomparison. The change detected by the processor 604 may be any changein patient data that has not been identified previously.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1235 another patientlifecycle event has not occurred, the method continues at step 1250 withthe processor 604 indicating to the invoking process that no patientlifecycle event occurred.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1235 another patientlifecycle event has occurred, the method continues at step 1240 with theprocessor 604 determining the patient lifecycle event that did occur,based on the patient lifecycle state comparison performed by theprocessor 604 at step 1220. The operations performed by the processor604 to determine the patient lifecycle event at step 1240 are in linewith the operations performed by the processor 604 at step 1225 and step1230 with deeper analysis of the patient data at step 1240. The patientdata analysis performed by the processor 604 at step 1240 may includelifecycle event determination based on patient data input to apredictive analytic, machine learning, or artificial intelligence modeltrained with patient data.

Then, the method continues at step 1245 with the processor 604indicating to the invoking process that a patient lifecycle eventoccurred. In various embodiments, the method may repeat. In somedesigns, the method may end.

FIG. 13 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design. The methoddepicted in FIG. 13 is given from the perspective of an exemplarypatient lifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning engine(SCPE) implemented via processor-executable program instructionsexecuting on the SCPE processor 604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In variousembodiments, the processor 604 implementing the process 1300 may beconfigured in an exemplary system 100 as described herein with referenceto any of FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . For example, the depicted process mayexecute as processor executable program instructions on processor 604configured in the application server 116, depicted in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9. In various embodiments, the method depicted in FIG. 13 may also beunderstood as from the perspective of processor-executable programinstructions executing on a mobile device operably coupled with thenetwork 150, depicted at least in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . In the illustratedembodiment, the SCPE executes as program instructions on the processor604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In some embodiments, the SCPE may execute as acloud service communicatively and operatively coupled with systemservices, hardware resources, or software elements local to and/orexternal to the SCPE processor 604. The depicted method 1300 begins atstep 1305 with the processor 604 creating a default service bundle. Thedefault service bundle created by the processor 604 may include aservice for which a patient is already registered. The service for whichthe patient is already registered may be a primary service. The defaultservice bundle may include a service window parameter related to abundled service, such as, for example, location, facility, time slot, ordoctor. The processor 604 may create the default service bundle as anempty bundle with no service, or no service window.

Then, the method continues at step 1310 with the processor 604identifying appropriate optional services to offer to the patient basedon patient medical data. The processor 604 may determine an optionalservice is appropriate to a patient if the optional service consideredis not contraindicated by medical care standards, in view of thepatient's medical condition. The patient's medical condition may bedetermined by the processor 604 using techniques like those describedherein with reference to process 1200, depicted by FIG. 12 .

Then, the method continues at step 1315 with the processor 604determining if any of the optional services determined at step 1310 bythe processor 604 as appropriate are medically indicated for the patientbased on the current patient lifecycle event and patient medical data.The processor 604 may determine an optional service is medicallyindicated for a patient if the service is related by medical carestandards to the patient condition. For example, if a medical carestandard suggests a doctor treating a patient with a given conditionshould also consider treatment with a particular class of drug orscreening by a particular test for another condition, the processor 604may determine that consideration of the drug treatment or screening testmay be medically indicated for the patient based on the current patientlifecycle event and patient medical data. The current patient lifecycleevent may be determined by the processor 604 using techniques similar tothose described herein with reference to process 1200, depicted by FIG.12 .

Then, the method continues at step 1320 with the processor 604performing a test to determine if medically indicated procedures shouldbe added to the default service bundle, based on the determination bythe processor 604 at step 1315, as to whether appropriate optionalservices may be medically indicated. Upon a determination at step 1320by the processor 604 some appropriate optional service is medicallyindicated; the method continues at step 1325 with the processor 604adding at least one medically indicated appropriate optional service tothe default service bundle. The service added to the service bundle bythe processor 604 may include a service window parameter related to theadded service, such as, for example, location, facility, time slot, ordoctor.

Upon a determination at step 1320 by the processor 604 no appropriateoptional service is medically indicated; the method continues at step1330 with the processor 604 performing a test to determine if afollow-up service may be added to the service bundle. A follow-upservice may be, for example, mandatory, such as a post-surgical visitfor suture removal. In some cases, a follow-up service may be optional.A candidate follow-up service considered by the processor 604 foraddition to the service bundle may be a follow-up service to a primaryservice, or a follow-up service to an optional service. Upon adetermination by the processor 604 at step 1330 some follow-up servicemay be added to the service bundle, the method continues at step 1335with the processor 604 adding at least one follow-up service to theservice bundle.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1330 no follow-upservice may be added to the service bundle, the method continues at step1340 with the processor 604 determining if additional optional servicesare available within the same service window (for example, location,facility, time slot, or doctor) as a primary service.

Then, the method continues at step 1345 with the processor 604performing a test to determine if an optional service available in thesame service window as a primary service may be added to the servicebundle. Upon a determination at step 1345 by the processor 604 anoptional service available in the same service window as a primaryservice may be added to the service bundle, the method continues at step1350 with the processor 604 adding to the service bundle an optionalservice available within the same service window as a primary service.

Upon a determination at step 1345 by the processor 604 no optionalservice available in the same service window as a primary service may beadded to the service bundle, the method continues at step 1355 with theprocessor 604 determining if performing bundled services in anotheroptional service window (that is, a service window different from, oralternative to, the primary service window) would improve resourceutilization. The resource utilization data evaluated by the processor604 at step 1355 may include facility, equipment, or medicalprofessional cost per unit time, percent idle time, or percent activetime. The processor 604 may determine if resource utilization may beimproved based on comparing calculated projected utilization of one ormore resource based on the resource utilization data for more than oneservice window. The processor 604 may determine the relative cost toprovide service in various service windows, to facilitate offering adiscount determined by the processor 604 as a function of relativeresource utilization between the service windows.

Then the method continues at step 1360 with the processor 604 performinga test to determine if offering service in an alternative service windowwould improve resource utilization, based on the evaluation of resourceutilization in optional service windows performed by the processor 604at step 1355. Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1360offering service in an alternative service window would improve resourceutilization, the method continues at step 1365 with the processor 604adding an optional service window to the service bundle.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1360 offering servicein an alternative service window would not improve resource utilization,the method continues at step 1370 with the processor 604 adding aprepayment discount determined as a function of relative service windowresource utilization to the service bundle offer. In variousembodiments, the method may repeat. In some designs, the method may end.

FIG. 14 is a process flow illustrative of an example aspect of patientlifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning design. The methoddepicted in FIG. 14 is given from the perspective of an exemplarypatient lifecycle event triggered shopping cart provisioning engine(SCPE) implemented via processor-executable program instructionsexecuting on the SCPE processor 604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In variousembodiments, the processor 604 implementing the process 1400 may beconfigured in an exemplary system 100 as described herein with referenceto any of FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . For example, the depicted process mayexecute as processor executable program instructions on processor 604configured in the application server 116, depicted in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9. In various embodiments, the method depicted in FIG. 14 may also beunderstood as from the perspective of processor-executable programinstructions executing on a mobile device operably coupled with thenetwork 150, depicted at least in FIGS. 1, 6, and 9 . In the illustratedembodiment, the SCPE executes as program instructions on the processor604, depicted in FIG. 5 . In some embodiments, the SCPE may execute as acloud service communicatively and operatively coupled with systemservices, hardware resources, or software elements local to and/orexternal to the SCPE processor 604. The depicted method 1400 begins atstep 1405 with the processor 604 constructing a shopping cart based onthe service bundle offer predetermined by the processor 604 executingthe process 1300, depicted by FIG. 13 .

Then, the method continues at step 1410 with the processor 604presenting the shopping cart of bundled services to a patient as afunction of service window (for example, a service window may includelocation, facility, time slot, doctor, or other variables) and aprepayment discount. The shopping cart of bundled services may bepresented to the patient in an email, text message, mobile app, webpage, chat window, or automated phone call. Various designs may enablethe patient to select from among the offered services presented in theshopping cart. In an illustrative example, the shopping cart may offer achoice of service window with some services. For example, given anoffered service such as a particular medical procedure, a service windowchoice presented to the patient with the medical procedure may include achoice of location, facility, time slot, doctor, or other optionalprocedures available within the service window. In some cases, more thanone service window may be presented to a patient for selection. Theservice window choice may include a prepayment discount. More than oneprepayment discount amount or prepayment discount percentage may beoffered to a patient. The prepayment discount may vary as a function ofthe service window. The prepayment discount may be determined as afunction of medical practice resource utilization, medical practice costper unit time to provide a service in the service window, or medicalprofessional availability during the service window. The prepaymentdiscount may be a prepayment discount valid for prepayment before apredetermined date.

Then, the method continues at step 1415 with the processor 604 receivingan indication of patient service selection from the shopping cart ofbundled services presented to the patient by the processor 604 at step1410. The indication of patient service selection may be an indicationthe patient did not select an offered service after a predeterminedtime. The indication of patient service selection may be an indicationthe patient rejected the offered services.

Then, the method continues at step 1420 with the processor 604performing a test to determine if the patient selected a service. Upon adetermination by the processor 604 at step 1420 the patient did notselect a service, the method continues at step 1425 with the processor604 optionally adjusting the prepayment discount, and the methodcontinues at step 1405 with the processor 604 constructing a shoppingcart based on a service bundle offer.

Upon a determination by the processor 604 at step 1420 the patientselected a service, the method continues at step 1430 with the processor604 applying the prepayment discount to the selected services, and themethod continues at step 1435 with the processor 604 accepting payment.In various embodiments, the method may repeat. In some designs, themethod may end.

Although various embodiments have been described with reference to theDrawings, other embodiments are possible.

In an aspect, an apparatus may comprise a processor; and a memoryconfigured to be operably coupled to the processor, wherein the memorycomprises encoded processor executable program instructions and data,wherein said instructions and data jointly program and configure theprocessor and wherein the instructions when executed by the processorcause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving paymentfor a bundled set of a plurality of healthcare services comprising atleast one dental service to be provided individually by a plurality ofrespective providers, wherein the received payment is pre-paid in anamount of a bundle price based on a location at which at least onehealthcare service of the bundled set of healthcare services will beprovided; and in response to receiving the payment, generating apurchase data record identified by a unique confirmation numberselectively redeemable by a user to receive each healthcare service ofthe plurality of healthcare services individually.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise storingthe purchase data record and the unique confirmation number in thememory.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise sendingthe unique confirmation number to the user.

The received payment may comprise real currency.

The received payment may comprise virtual funds.

The received virtual funds payment may further comprise promotionalcredit.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise creatinga virtual funds account for the user.

The received payment may be received from the virtual funds accountcreated for the user.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprisedisbursing payment to at least one of the plurality of respectiveproviders.

The at least one of the plurality of respective providers to whichpayment is disbursed may further comprise at least one of a physician, adentist, an orthodontist, a periodontist, an oral surgeon, aradiologist, an anesthesiologist, a dental hygienist, a practice group,a hospital or an insurer.

The disbursed payment may comprise real currency.

The disbursed payment may comprise virtual funds.

The disbursed payment may comprise a plurality of payments allocatedfrom the received payment, wherein the plurality of payments may bedisbursed to each of the plurality of respective providers.

The user may have a health insurance policy having a health insurancedeductible and wherein the operations performed by the processor mayfurther comprise applying an amount of the received payment to thehealth insurance deductible.

The amount of the received payment applied to the health insurancedeductible may be determined by the processor as a function of thehealth insurance policy.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise settingthe bundle price based on the health insurance deductible.

The purchase data record may persist in a data store operably coupledwith the processor and wherein the purchase data record may beredeemable until each of the plurality of healthcare services in thebundled set is redeemed.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise:presenting to the user a plurality of healthcare services comprising atleast one bundled set of the plurality of healthcare services to beperformed separately by the plurality of respective providers; andreceiving an indication of at least one bundled set of healthcareservices selected by the user, wherein the bundle price may be furtherdetermined by the processor based on a time at which at least one of theplurality of services will be provided.

The bundle price may be a real currency price.

The bundle price may be a virtual funds price.

The bundle price may be an undiscounted price.

The bundle price may be a discounted price.

The purchase data record may further comprise a distinct redemptionstatus for each individual healthcare service of the bundled set ofhealthcare services, and wherein the operations performed by theprocessor may further comprise setting each individual redemption statusin the purchase data record to indicate the purchase has not beenredeemed for each individual healthcare service of the bundled set ofhealthcare services.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise receivingthe unique confirmation number with a request for redemption of at leastone healthcare service and using the purchase data record to selectivelydetermine the redemption status of the at least one healthcare service.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise updatingthe redemption status of the purchase data record to indicate redemptionof at least one of the plurality of healthcare services.

The purchase data record may further comprise a transaction informationrecord of the bundled set of healthcare services, and wherein updatingthe redemption status may further comprise updating in a data storeoperably coupled with the processor the transaction information recordof the bundled set of healthcare services.

The at least one bundled set may further comprise a drug.

The at least one bundled set of healthcare services may further comprisea primary service and a secondary service associated with the primaryservice, and wherein the received payment may further comprise paymentfor the secondary service.

The purchase data record may be a voucher.

The voucher may be selectively redeemable for each healthcare serviceindividually.

The at least one dental service may further comprise cleaning.

The at least one dental service may further comprise examination.

The at least one dental service may further comprise extraction.

The at least one dental service may further comprise restoration.

The at least one dental service may further comprise imaging.

The bundled set of the plurality of healthcare services may furthercomprise at least one dental service determined by the processor inresponse to a patient lifecycle event detected as a function of updateddental data received in an Electronic Health Record (EHR).

In an aspect, an apparatus may comprise: a processor; and a memoryconfigured to be operably coupled to the processor, wherein the memorycomprises encoded processor executable program instructions and data,wherein said instructions and data jointly program and configure theprocessor and wherein the instructions when executed by the processorcause the processor to perform operations comprising: receiving paymentfor a bundled set of a plurality of healthcare services comprising atleast one veterinary service to be provided individually by a pluralityof respective providers, wherein the received payment is pre-paid in anamount of a bundle price based on a location at which at least onehealthcare service of the bundled set of healthcare services will beprovided; and in response to receiving the payment, generating apurchase data record identified by a unique confirmation numberselectively redeemable by a user to receive each healthcare service ofthe plurality of healthcare services individually.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise storingthe purchase data record and the unique confirmation number in thememory.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise sendingthe unique confirmation number to the user.

The received payment may comprise real currency.

The received payment may comprise virtual funds.

The received virtual funds payment may further comprise promotionalcredit.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise creatinga virtual funds account for the user.

The received payment may be received from the virtual funds accountcreated for the user.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprisedisbursing payment to at least one of the plurality of respectiveproviders.

The at least one of the plurality of respective providers to whichpayment is disbursed may further comprise at least one of a physician, aveterinarian, an anesthesiologist, a radiologist, a veterinarytechnician, a practice group, a hospital or an insurer.

The disbursed payment may comprise real currency.

The disbursed payment may comprise virtual funds.

The disbursed payment may comprise a plurality of payments allocatedfrom the received payment, wherein the plurality of payments may bedisbursed to each of the plurality of respective providers.

The user may have a health insurance policy having a health insurancedeductible and wherein the operations performed by the processor mayfurther comprise applying an amount of the received payment to thehealth insurance deductible.

The amount of the received payment applied to the health insurancedeductible may be determined by the processor as a function of thehealth insurance policy.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise settingthe bundle price based on the health insurance deductible.

The purchase data record may persist in a data store operably coupledwith the processor and wherein the purchase data record may beredeemable until each of the plurality of healthcare services in thebundled set is redeemed.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise:presenting to the user a plurality of healthcare services comprising atleast one bundled set of the plurality of healthcare services to beperformed separately by the plurality of respective providers; andreceiving an indication of at least one bundled set of healthcareservices selected by the user, wherein the bundle price may be furtherdetermined by the processor based on a time at which at least one of theplurality of services will be provided.

The bundle price may be a real currency price.

The bundle price may be a virtual funds price.

The bundle price may be an undiscounted price.

The bundle price may be a discounted price.

The purchase data record may further comprise a distinct redemptionstatus for each individual healthcare service of the bundled set ofhealthcare services, and wherein the operations performed by theprocessor may further comprise setting each individual redemption statusin the purchase data record to indicate the purchase has not beenredeemed for each individual healthcare service of the bundled set ofhealthcare services.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise receivingthe unique confirmation number with a request for redemption of at leastone healthcare service and using the purchase data record to selectivelydetermine the redemption status of the at least one healthcare service.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise updatingthe redemption status of the purchase data record to indicate redemptionof at least one of the plurality of healthcare services.

The purchase data record may further comprise a transaction informationrecord of the bundled set of healthcare services, and wherein updatingthe redemption status may further comprise updating in a data storeoperably coupled with the processor the transaction information recordof the bundled set of healthcare services.

The at least one bundled set may further comprise a drug.

The at least one bundled set of healthcare services may further comprisea primary service and a secondary service associated with the primaryservice, and wherein the received payment may further comprise paymentfor the secondary service.

The purchase data record may be a voucher.

The voucher may be selectively redeemable for each healthcare serviceindividually.

The at least one veterinary service further may comprise a dentalservice.

The at least one veterinary service may further comprise a vaccinationservice.

The at least one veterinary service may further comprise prescribing adrug.

The at least one veterinary service may further comprise a servicerelated to surgery.

The at least one veterinary service may further comprise room and board.

The operations performed by the processor may further compriseassociating an identification code transmitted by a transponder in anon-human animal patient with the unique confirmation number using thepurchase data record.

The operations performed by the processor may further comprise receivingthe identification code.

The bundled set of healthcare services may further comprise at least oneservice related to room and board pre-paid for the non-human animalpatient.

The bundled set of healthcare services may further comprise anadditional pre-paid amount of funds redeemable to a person who found thenon-human animal patient.

The bundled set of the plurality of healthcare services may furthercomprise at least one veterinary service determined by the processor inresponse to a patient lifecycle event detected as a function of updatedveterinary medical data received in an Electronic Health Record (EHR).

For example, at least one service of a bundled set of healthcareservices may comprise a dental service. An implementation in accordancewith the present disclosure may comprise processor executable programinstructions and data configured to cause the processor 604 to performoperations comprising presenting users a selection of at least onebundled set of healthcare services comprising a dental service, whereinthe healthcare services are provided discretely and/or individually by aplurality of respective providers, determining a bundle price for thebundled set of healthcare services, receiving payment for the userselected bundled set, generating a purchase data record selectivelyredeemable by the user to receive each of the bundled healthcareservices in the bundled set, transmitting a unique confirmation numbergenerated for the purchase data record to track the redemption status ofthe purchase data record, disbursing payment allocated from the receivedpayment to the plurality of respective providers and updating theredemption status of the purchase data record as each of the pluralityof services of the bundled set are redeemed. The bundle price for abundled set of services comprising a dental service may be based on theuser's health insurance deductible as well as the location and/or timeat which the bundled set of services will be provided. The purchase datarecord may be a voucher. The dental service may be a dental service fora human patient. The dental service may be a dental service for anon-human patient.

The dental service may comprise a service related to tooth care. Thedental service may comprise a service related to mouth care. The dentalservice related to tooth care may comprise, for example, cleaning,examination, treatment, filling, extraction, or restoration. Animplementation in accordance with the present disclosure may create andmaintain a persistent selectively redeemable purchase data record for abundled set of healthcare services comprising one or more dentalservice.

The dental service related to mouth care may be a screening for adisease involving the patient's oral cavity. The disease involving thepatient's oral cavity may be, for example, cancer. A dental serviceprovider may be a dentist. The dentist may be, for example, a generaldentist, an orthodontist, a periodontist, or an oral surgeon. A dentalservice provider may be a dental hygienist. A dental service may furthercomprise one or more anesthesia service. The anesthesia service may beprovided by the dentist. The anesthesia service may be provided by ananesthesiologist. A dental service may further comprise one or moreservice provided by a radiologist.

A dental service comprising cleaning may further comprise periodic orregularly scheduled cleaning of a patient's teeth. A dental cleaningservice may be prescribed because of a dental examination. A dentalcleaning service may comprise one cleaning procedure. A dental cleaningservice may comprise more than one cleaning procedure. For example, adental cleaning service may be a single cleaning procedure encompassingcleaning all the teeth in a patient's mouth in one procedure or visit. Adental cleaning service may comprise a set of individual cleaningprocedures performed at different times wherein each individual cleaningprocedure is a component of the dental cleaning service. For example,multiple individual cleaning procedure components of a dental cleaningservice may each be directed to clean different groups of a patient'steeth. Some dental cleaning services may partition a patient's teethinto groups and each group of teeth may be cleaned during a separatedental cleaning procedure scheduled on a distinct day.

A dental service provided by the dentist may comprise examination of apatient's teeth. Examination of the patient's teeth may further comprisethe dentist determining the condition of individual teeth, based on thedentist manually probing individual teeth. The dentist may record in anElectronic Health Record (EHR) an individual condition of one or morepatient tooth determined by the dentist's examination. The EHRcomprising the dentist's determination of the patient's tooth conditionmay be stored by the processor 604 in one or more data store. Theprocessor 604 may compare the EHR comprising updated dental data fromthe dentist's determination of the patient's tooth condition witharchived patient tooth condition data. The processor 604 may determine apatient lifecycle event occurred based on the comparison, as disclosed,for example, with reference to FIGS. 11-14 . In response to determininga patient lifecycle event occurred, the processor 604 may furtherdetermine additional services or bundled sets of services to bepresented to the patient as disclosed, for example, with reference toFIGS. 11-14 . For example, the processor 604 may determine additionaltooth treatment services to be offered to the patient, based on theupdated data.

Examination of the patient's mouth may further comprise examination ofthe patient's gums. Examination of the patient's gums may furthercomprise the dentist determining the condition of the patient's gumlinein proximity to one or more tooth. For example, the dentist maydetermine the condition of the patient's gumline based on the dentistmanually measuring the depth of gum pockets along the patient's gumline.The dentist may record in an Electronic Health Record (EHR) anindividual condition or depth of one or more gum pocket along apatient's gumline, based on the dentist's examination. The EHRcomprising the dentist's determination of the patient's gum pocket depthor gumline condition may be stored by the processor 604 in one or moredata store. The processor 604 may compare the EHR comprising updateddental data from the dentist's determination of the patient's gum pocketdepth or gumline condition with archived patient gum pocket depth orgumline condition data. The processor 604 may determine a patientlifecycle event occurred based on the comparison, as disclosed, forexample, with reference to FIGS. 11-14 . In response to determining apatient lifecycle event occurred, the processor 604 may furtherdetermine additional services or bundled sets of services to bepresented to the patient as disclosed, for example, with reference toFIGS. 11-14 . For example, the processor 604 may determine additionalperiodontal services to be offered to the patient, based on the updateddata.

Examination of the patient's teeth may further comprise a diagnosticimaging procedure. The diagnostic imaging procedure may further compriseone or more radiographic imaging procedure. The radiographic imagingprocedure may further comprise, for example, an X-ray, ComputedTomography (CT), Cone-beam Computed Tomography (CBCT), or MagneticResonance Imaging (MRI) procedure. The diagnostic imaging procedure maybe performed by the dentist. The diagnostic imaging procedure may beperformed by an imaging service provider separate from the dentist. Thediagnostic imaging procedure may result in one or more diagnostic image.The one or more diagnostic image may be evaluated by the dentist. One ormore diagnostic image may be evaluated by a dental radiologist. Thedentist or dental radiologist may determine the condition of one or moreof the patient's teeth based on evaluation of the one or more diagnosticimage. The dentist or dental radiologist may record in an EHR anindividual condition of one or more patient tooth determined based on anevaluation of the one or more diagnostic image. The EHR comprising theindividual tooth condition determined using the one or more diagnosticimage may be stored by the processor 604 in one or more data store. Theprocessor 604 may compare the EHR comprising updated dental data fromthe determination of the individual tooth condition with archivedpatient tooth condition data. The processor 604 may determine a patientlifecycle event occurred based on the comparison, as disclosed, forexample, with reference to FIGS. 11-14 . In response to determining apatient lifecycle event occurred, the processor 604 may furtherdetermine additional services or bundled sets of services to bepresented to the patient as disclosed, for example, with reference toFIGS. 11-14 . For example, the processor 604 may determine additionaltooth treatment services to be offered to the patient, based on theupdated data.

A dental service comprising treatment may further comprise drilling,filling, extraction, or restoration, of one or more tooth. A dentalservice may further comprise one or more service provided by a dentallab. A dental lab service may include crafting or manufacturing a dentalprosthetic device or dental appliance. Dental prosthetic devices mayinclude an implant, crown, cap, bridge, denture, or other device used torestore, replace, or enhance appearance or function of a dentalpatient's teeth. A dentist may place, install, or set the dentalprosthetic device or dental appliance in a patient's mouth. A dentalservice may further comprise a dentist placing, installing, or setting adental prosthetic device or dental appliance in a patient's mouth. Adental service may further comprise installing or adjusting braces. Inillustrative examples a bundled set of services may comprise one or moreservice related to planning, visualization of abnormal teeth, evaluationof the jaws and face, cleft palate assessment, diagnosis of dentalcaries (cavities), endodontic (root canal) diagnosis, or diagnosisand/or treatment of dental trauma.

At least one service of a bundled set of healthcare services maycomprise a veterinary service. A veterinary service may further comprisea dental service in accordance with the present disclosure. Animplementation in accordance with the present disclosure may compriseprocessor executable program instructions and data configured to causethe processor 604 to perform operations comprising presenting users aselection of at least one bundled set of healthcare services comprisinga veterinary service, wherein the healthcare services are provideddiscretely and/or individually by a plurality of respective providers,determining a bundle price for the bundled set of healthcare services,receiving payment for the user selected bundled set, generating apurchase data record selectively redeemable by the user to receive eachof the bundled healthcare services in the bundled set, transmitting aunique confirmation number generated for the purchase data record totrack the redemption status of the purchase data record, disbursingpayment allocated from the received payment to the plurality ofrespective providers and updating the redemption status of the purchasedata record as each of the plurality of services of the bundled set areredeemed. The bundle price for a bundled set of services comprising aveterinary service may be based on the user's health insurancedeductible as well as the location and/or time at which the bundled setof services will be provided. The purchase data record may be a voucher.

The veterinary service may comprise a service related to healthcare fora non-human animal patient. The non-human animal patient may be a pet.The veterinary service may be provided by a veterinarian. The veterinaryservice may be provided by a veterinary technician. The veterinaryservice may comprise a service related to vaccination. The veterinaryservice may comprise a service related to a patient's skeletal system.The veterinary service may comprise a service related to a patient'sskin or fur. The veterinary service may comprise one or more drug. Theone or more drug may further comprise a prescription drug. Theveterinary service may comprise a service related to a patient'sexternal appendages. The patient's external appendages may furthercomprise fins, flippers, beaks, trunks, tails, legs, arms, or the like.The veterinary service may comprise a service related to internalmedicine. The veterinary service related to internal medicine maycomprise a service related to a patient's blood. The veterinary servicerelated to internal medicine may comprise a service related to acondition that may result due to a parasite. The veterinary servicerelated to internal medicine may comprise a service related to acondition that may result due to a poison. The veterinary service maycomprise a service related to surgery. The veterinary service maycomprise an anesthesia service. The anesthesia service may be providedby the veterinarian. The anesthesia service may be provided by ananesthesiologist. The veterinary service may comprise a service relatedto trimming claws. The veterinary service may comprise a service relatedto cleaning teeth. The veterinary service related to cleaning teeth maycomprise, for example, cleaning, examination, treatment, filling,extraction, or restoration. The veterinary service may comprise aservice related to a condition that may result due to the non-humananimal patient or pet being lost or separated from their human family.An implementation in accordance with the present disclosure may createand maintain a persistent selectively redeemable purchase data recordfor a bundled set of healthcare services comprising one or moreveterinary service.

In some cases, a veterinarian may record in an Electronic Health Record(EHR) a medical condition or diagnostic result. The medical condition ordiagnostic result recorded in the EHR may be a result of theveterinarian providing a healthcare service to a patient. The medicalcondition or diagnostic result recorded in the EHR may be a medicalcondition or diagnostic result determined by the veterinarian duringexamination of the patient. The EHR comprising the medical condition ordiagnostic result determined by the veterinarian may be stored by theprocessor 604 in one or more data store. The processor 604 may comparethe EHR comprising updated veterinary medical data from theveterinarian's determination of the patient's condition with archivedpatient condition data. The processor 604 may determine a patientlifecycle event occurred based on the comparison, as disclosed, forexample, with reference to FIGS. 11-14 . In response to determining apatient lifecycle event occurred, the processor 604 may furtherdetermine additional veterinary services or bundled sets of services tobe presented to the patient as disclosed, for example, with reference toFIGS. 11-14 . For example, the processor 604 may determine additionaltreatment services to be offered to the patient, based on the updateddata.

In an implementation in accordance with the present disclosure, aveterinary service may comprise providing food, water, medical care,transportation, or a safe place to sleep for the non-human animalpatient. Such services may be known as room and board services. In somecases, the veterinary services comprising room and board may be providedto a patient as a result of the non-human animal patient or pet beinglost or separated from their human family. An implementation inaccordance with the present disclosure may be configured to permitpre-paid purchase of a bundled set of healthcare services comprisingveterinary services, wherein the bundled set of healthcare servicesfurther comprises providing food, water, medical care, transportation,or a safe place to sleep for the non-human animal patient. Animplementation in accordance with the present disclosure may beconfigured with processor executable program instructions to cause theprocessor 604 to perform operations comprising associating anidentification code transmitted by a transponder in the non-human animalpatient with the unique confirmation number generated by the processor604 that identifies the bundled set of healthcare services using thepurchase data record. A copy of the identification code may be encodedby the purchase data record to permit the processor 604 to associate theidentification code with the unique confirmation number that identifiesthe bundled set of services. The copy of the identification code may bestored in or with the purchase data record during a registration step.The copy of the identification code may be stored in or with thepurchase data record when the bundled set of services is purchased. Theidentification code transmitted by the transponder may be a codeidentifying an animal. The transponder may be a transponder configuredfor radio frequency identification (RFID) of animals in accordance withISO 11784, ISO 11785, or ISO 14223 standards, or the like. Thetransponder may be any type of transponder as may be known by one ofordinary skill in the field of art relevant to radio frequencyidentification. The transponder may be known as a pet microchip. In anillustrative example, a concerned person finding a lost animal may takethe lost animal to an animal shelter or veterinarian, permitting theanimal to be scanned for the identification code transmitted by thetransponder when scanned. The veterinarian or animal shelter may beequipped with a mobile device configured to receive the identificationcode transmitted by the transponder when the transponder is scanned. Themobile device may send the received identification code to a serverimplementation in accordance with the present disclosure. In thisexample, the server implementation in accordance with the presentdisclosure may receive the identification code using the processor 604,and associate the received identification code with the uniqueconfirmation number encoded by the purchase data record, wherein theunique confirmation number was generated by the processor 604 toidentify the bundled set of healthcare services, using the processor 604and the purchase data record. The server implementation in accordancewith the present disclosure may send an indication the bundled set ofhealthcare services comprises at least one service such as providingfood, water, medical care, transportation, or a safe place to sleep forthe non-human animal patient that was implanted with the transponderthat transmitted the identification code. The server implementation inaccordance with the present disclosure may send the unique confirmationnumber identifying the bundled set of healthcare services to the animalshelter or veterinarian, permitting redemption of one or more servicesof the bundled set of services using the purchase data recordselectively redeemable to receive each of the bundled healthcareservices in the bundled set. In some examples the bundled set ofservices may further comprise an additional prepaid amount of fundsredeemable by the person who found the pet, and who transmitted thepet's identifying code to the server.

In the Summary above, in this Detailed Description, the Claims below,the content of each of the applications incorporated by reference hereinand in the accompanying drawings, reference is made to features ofvarious embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood that thedisclosure of embodiments of the invention in this specificationincludes all possible combinations of such features. For example, wherea particular feature is disclosed in the context of a particular aspector embodiment of the invention, or a particular claim, that feature canalso be used-to the extent possible-in combination with and/or in thecontext of other aspects and embodiments of the invention, and in theinvention generally.

Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to theparticular embodiments disclosed as the best mode contemplated forcarrying out this invention, but that the invention will include allembodiments falling within the scope of the present application as setforth in the following claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular, such as by use of the article “a” or “an” is not intended tomean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “oneor more.” Moreover, no claim element is to be construed under theprovisions of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f), or 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph(pre-AIA), unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase“means for” or “step for.” These following claims should be construed tomaintain the proper protection for the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving an electronicmessage comprising a user payment for a bundled set of a plurality ofselectively redeemable healthcare services comprising at least onedental service to be provided by a plurality of respective providers,wherein the received payment is pre-paid in an amount of a bundle pricebased on a location at which at least one selectively redeemablehealthcare service of the bundled set of healthcare services will beprovided, using a processor; and in response to receiving the electronicmessage comprising the user payment, generating an electronic healthrecord comprising a purchase data record identified by and with a uniqueconfirmation number, using the processor; presetting an initialindividual redemption status in the purchase data record for eachselectively redeemable healthcare service of the bundled set ofhealthcare services as purchased and unredeemed, using the processor;and providing user access to the purchase data record to receive eachselectively redeemable healthcare service of the plurality of healthcareservices, using the processor.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein inresponse to receiving the electronic message comprising the user paymentusing the processor, the method further comprises: storing theelectronic health record in a memory operably coupled with theprocessor, using the processor; and sending the electronic health recordto at least one provider of the plurality of respective providers, usingthe processor.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method furthercomprises sending the unique confirmation number to the user, using theprocessor.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received paymentcomprises real currency.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receivedpayment comprises virtual funds.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thereceived virtual funds payment further comprises promotional credit. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises creating avirtual funds account for the user, using the processor.
 8. The methodof claim 7, wherein the received payment is received from the virtualfunds account created for the user, using the processor.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein the method further comprises disbursing payment toat least one of the plurality of respective providers, using theprocessor.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one of theplurality of respective providers to which payment is disbursed furthercomprises at least one of a physician, a dentist, an orthodontist, aperiodontist, an oral surgeon, a radiologist, an anesthesiologist, adental hygienist, a practice group, a hospital, a facility or aninsurer.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the disbursed paymentcomprises a plurality of payments allocated from the received payment,wherein the method further comprises the plurality of payments isdisbursed to each of the plurality of respective providers, using theprocessor.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has a healthinsurance policy having a health insurance deductible and wherein themethod further comprises applying an amount of the received payment tothe health insurance deductible, using the processor.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the method further comprises the amount of thereceived payment applied to the health insurance deductible isdetermined as a function of the health insurance policy, using theprocessor.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the method furthercomprises setting the bundle price based on the health insurancedeductible, using the processor.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein thepurchase data record persists in a data store operably coupled with theprocessor and wherein the purchase data record is redeemable using theprocessor until each of the plurality of healthcare services in thebundled set is redeemed.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the methodfurther comprises: presenting to the user a plurality of healthcareservices, using the processor, wherein the plurality of healthcareservices comprise at least one bundled set of the plurality ofhealthcare services to be performed separately by the plurality ofrespective providers; and receiving an indication, using the processor,of at least one bundled set of healthcare services selected by the user,wherein the bundle price is further determined by the processor based ona time at which at least one of the plurality of services will beprovided.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one bundledset further comprises a drug.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the atleast one bundled set of healthcare services further comprises a primaryservice and a secondary service associated with the primary service, andwherein the received payment further comprises payment for the secondaryservice.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein the purchase data record isthe electronic health record.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein thepurchase data record is selectively redeemable for each healthcareservice individually, using the processor.
 21. The method of claim 1,wherein the at least one dental service further comprises cleaning. 22.The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dental service furthercomprises examination.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein the at leastone dental service further comprises extraction.
 24. The method of claim1, wherein the at least one dental service further comprisesrestoration.
 25. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one dentalservice further comprises a service related to surgery.
 26. The methodof claim 1, wherein the at least one dental service further comprises aservice related to braces.
 27. The method of claim 1, wherein the atleast one dental service further comprises orthodontal services.
 28. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the at least one dental service furthercomprises periodontal services.
 29. The method of claim 1, wherein theat least one dental service further comprises imaging.
 30. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the bundled set of the plurality of healthcare servicesfurther comprises at least one dental service determined in response toa patient lifecycle event detected as a function of updated dental datareceived in an Electronic Health Record (EHR), using the processor.